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ABOUT THIS BLOG

It's a make-it or break it time for retailers. The holiday selling season is always a critical time for retailers, but this year this may be even more true. With several retailers already falling victim to a drop in consumer spending, and filing for bankruptcy, retailers will be navigating through some tricky waters. Consumers are strapped for cash due to high energy and food prices, and unemployment is rising. The recent credit crunch has made it more challenging for retailers and consumers to borrow.

This blog will look at the winners and losers in the retail space. Who has the right strategy to capture consumer dollars? It also will look for trends in consumer spending and how that will impact the economy.

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Same Store Sales: What To Look For On Thursday

Published: Tuesday, 4 Mar 2008 | 1:53 PM ET

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By: Margaret Brennan
CNBC Reporter

Find me an analyst or an investor who's excited about this week's same store sales results. Literally, the expectations are so low for this first month of the first quarter, that any indication of a rosier March may cause volatility around share prices when the nation's biggest stores report same store sales results for the month of February on this Thursday.

Cowen's analyst Lauren Levitan says that 'business trends in Feb. did not show any meaningful improvement following lackluster sales in the last couple of months." (FYI - Levitan has an outperform on AEO, ANN, BEBE, BBBY, LTD, MW, TIF, WSM, ULTA, URBN and sees the biggest downside risk to her Q1 EPS estimates for AEO, ANN, CHS, MW, NWY, and PSUN.)

Another naysayer: Goldman Sachs expects results to be lower than Wall Street is currently expecting with Wal-Mart [WMT Loading... () ] and Costco [COST Loading... () ]presenting the only healthy performance exceptions.

Thomson Financial is expecting that this month will be the weakest February since 2003. Why? According to Citi analyst Deb Weinswig (who's neutral on broadline retail right now): the reasons are lack of fashion newness, high food inflation and fuel prices (gasoline hit a national average of $3.16 a gallon last week--not far from its record high), and the housing slowdown is draining savings and retailers face tough same store sales comparisons to last year.