Warm weather cools sales

Poor apparel sales? Maybe you should blame the weather. It seems like weather is a good excuse for bad retail sales … shorts and skirt sales might lag during a cool summer, and a warmer-than-normal fall or winter can bring down sales of cold weather gear.

Paul Walsh at The Weather Channel says temperatures in September and the beginning of October have been above normal, and that has contributed to a slower sales of fall apparel.

The weather, along with the uncertainty surrounding the government fiscal crisis, points to a very difficult environment for retail as we end October, said Walsh.

"A lot of the major names are going to have a difficult time hitting their third-quarter expectations," he said.

So what's Paul Walsh's forecast for fall clothing sales?

"The good news is that as the weather has flipped now as we are near the end of October and we go in to Q4, I think the pent up demand will mean there will be an uptick in sales," says Walsh.

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