U.S. luxury retailers shine; discounters struggle

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

Are there those who still doubt that Repuke policies only favor the rich?

By Emily Kaiser
Thu May 5,12:51 PM ET



CHICAGO (Reuters) - U.S. luxury and teen-oriented retailers on Thursday reported better-than-expected April sales, while discount chains sputtered as soaring gasoline prices and unusually chilly weather curbed consumer spending.

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Neiman Marcus Group Inc., Nordstrom Inc. and Macy's and Bloomingdale's owner Federated Department Stores Inc. all turned in strong results, powered by demand for designer clothing and handbags, jewelry and shoes.

Neiman Marcus and Federated both raised their quarterly earnings forecasts.

But Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, posted its smallest monthly sales gain since November, and rival Target Corp. reported smaller-than-expected sales growth.

http://story.news.yahoo.com/news?tmpl=story&cid=580&e=5&u=/nm/20050505/bs_nm/retail_sales_dc

[IChing]

1. The haves and the have less

What we have here is a distribution of poverty
and not wealth.

[kansasblue]

2. just like during the depression:

During the depression lot of high end store never suffered. The rich had plenty of money.

[conflictgirl]

9. That's precisely what I was thinking too.

The rich get richer and the poor get poorer.

[cascadiance]

3. Hmm... How did Costco do in overall sales?...

Sounds like their gasoline sales did pretty nicely (up 8%). I'm sure many folks like me out here in the western half of the nation where the only way to "buy blue" buying gasoline is to go to Costco, which I've been doing exclusively since the beginning of the year now.

I've been wanting them to add a gas station at the closest store they have on the way to work. Maybe with these figures, now is a good time to send a note for them to do so.

It would be interesting to see how Costco did compared to Wal-Mart and Target here, focusing on a similar economic class demographic that Wal-Mart and Target do. If they were significantly higher, perhaps our "Buy Blue" efforts are accomplishing something. I think Wal-Mart and Target here in California also have the added red flag amongst us "blue consumers" of being where Arnold's paid special petition signature gatherers are hanging out too, which perhaps is also turning off some consumers too.

But whether it's that the rich have more money to spend here and are doing it at high end establishments where the poor don't have money to spend, or whether it's those at the lower ends are buying more at places like Costco (which reports like this in the corporate media don't want to talk about much), in either case, Wal-Mart and Target are taking it on the chin! GOOD!

[tabasco]

4. Dollar General Corp. gives almost exclusively to repubs.

Go figure. :shrug:

[burrowowl]

5. Only the haves

have money to spend.
In down times luxury sales are good. Get hired by a luxery trade corp.
We are not surprised.

[AndyTiedye]

6. Could Also Be People Boycotting Walmart

I see that Costco gained 8%, which is even more than any of those
luxury retailers they were talking about. They try to attribute
it to retail gas sales, but Walmart sells gas too, and there isn't
that much retail profit in gasoline (Walmart can't bully the oil companies the way they do their other suppliers).

Costco is 99% blue. Walmart is Walmart.

I don't doubt the basic premise of the story, but it seems to me
that there is something else going on here too -- something they
REALLY don't want to talk about.

[yorgatron]

7. that's why we need the Paris Hilton Tax Cut

so she can buy all that "hot" stuff... :eyes:

[cascadiance]

8. That was what I was speculating too...

But they aren't quoting overall sales of Costco, just their gasoline sales, which were good. I'd like to see if their overall sales were at least better than Wal-Mart and Target, which would indicate that it's more than just the bad economy that's causing sales to Wal-Mart and Target to drop. But we can't tell from this article, and I wonder if that's due to the corporate media bosses making sure that it doesn't show that people are successful at boycotting Wal-Mart. If it did, more people for sure would jump on board.

[DiverDave]

10. The french revolution was launched

on just this sort of thing...

Now who is gonna utter the line?

("let them eat cake", for our history challanged folks)

[DeepModem Mom]

11. kick