JAPANESE DEPT STORE SALES KEPT SLIDING IN APRIL ON APPAREL SLUMP

Posted on: Thu, 07 May 2009 00:52:00 EDT


Symbols: ISSNF
TOKYO, May 07, 2009 (AsiaPulse via COMTEX) --
ISSNF | Quote | Chart | News | PowerRating -- Sales at five major department
store operators declined 9.5 per cent to 14 per cent on the
year in April as demand continued to languish for clothing and
big-ticket items, according to preliminary figures they
released Friday.

Women's and men's apparel demand sagged, with Isetan Co.'s
Shinjuku Main Store seeing women's wear tumble 17.3 per cent.
The drop was 11 per cent at Daimaru Inc.'s six major stores.

The department store chains are reviewing their prices and
promotional campaigns in order to keep sales from unraveling
further. Mitsukoshi Ltd.'s Nihonbashi Main Store drew roughly
as many customers as a year earlier, but the number of items
purchased did not increase as expected, failing to stop the
sales skid.

Thanks to a spell of warm weather in April, "some stores now
see signs of a recovery," says an official at Takashimaya Co.
(TSE:8233). Despite this view, April's sales declines were only
1-2 percentage points milder than those in March at all but
Mitsukoshi, which suffered a steeper plunge.

(Nikkei)

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