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http://online.wsj.com/article/SB1000...395905906.html
any predictions on when Home Depot rolls out Christmas this year? Maybe August 1st?
This fall will provide a pivotal gauge of consumer health. Many retailers plan price increases—or are already phasing them in—to offset the rising cost of raw materials and wage increases in manufacturing centers such as China. Retailers have been testing higher prices on certain items this summer, with across-the-board increases expected to hit stores in coming weeks.
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Not everyone is cutting back, with many retailers saying they see a bifurcation in shopping patterns, where lower-income consumers remain pinched but more-affluent shoppers accelerate spending. At luxury department -store chain Saks Inc., same-store sales rose nearly 12% last month, while Nordstrom Inc. reported a 7.9% increase.
Overall chain-store sales, which skew heavily toward apparel retailers and don't include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, showed an increase of 6.5% in June, according to an index from Thomson Reuters. Yet sales and profits are slumping in the so-called dollar-store category, whose customers have been hit harder by the weak job market.
[..]
Not everyone is cutting back, with many retailers saying they see a bifurcation in shopping patterns, where lower-income consumers remain pinched but more-affluent shoppers accelerate spending. At luxury department -store chain Saks Inc., same-store sales rose nearly 12% last month, while Nordstrom Inc. reported a 7.9% increase.
Overall chain-store sales, which skew heavily toward apparel retailers and don't include Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's largest retailer, showed an increase of 6.5% in June, according to an index from Thomson Reuters. Yet sales and profits are slumping in the so-called dollar-store category, whose customers have been hit harder by the weak job market.
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