One of my 2017 forecast predictions didn’t take long to be right. Shitty Christmas sales, retail implosion, store closings, and in a couple weeks a Sears bankruptcy announcement. Reality bites. Time to short mall developers as ghost malls are the wave of the future. Can Trump tweet that Macy’s can’t close the 68 stores and must continue to employ those 10,000 workers?
Remember when market cheerleaders said that holiday sales were expected to be far stronger than usual, if only as a result of the newly-discovered optimism from the Trump election? Well, at least when it comes to conventional retailers like Kohl’s and Macy’s… not so much.
First, it was Kohl’s, which announced it was slashing its full year forecast, and now sees FY2017 adjusted EPS of $3.60-$3.65, down from $3.80-$4.00 less than two months ago, in the day after the election (ronically). It wasn’t just the future: the company revealed that comp sales were also down 2.1% y/y in fiscal months November and December combined.
As Kohl’s CEO Kevin Mansell said, “sales were volatile throughout the holiday season. Strong sales on Black Friday and during the week before Christmas were offset by softness in early November and December.”
But an even greater surprise was revealed moments later by retail belwether Macy’s, which not only reported a drop in same store sales, not only slashed guidance, but also announced it would close 68 stores and lay off over 10,000 workers.
