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Janpan: 5.7% drop in departmental stores sales |
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2004-7-27
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Departmental stores sales reported their biggest decline as in June as consumers and companies cut back on purchases of clothes and promotional products.
Major stores like Takashimaya Co., Isetan Co. and other department stores posted lower sales by 5.7 percent from a year earlier to 610.5 billion yen ($5.57 billion), the most since March 1999, as per release of the Tokyo-based Japan Department Stores Association.
Continuing deflation is holding back shoppers and Department stores aren''t sharing in a revival of consumer spending in Japan even while they expect prices to fall further. Concern about wages,which have risen just three times in the past 36 months, are also restraining consumers, the department store association said.
``There are still concerns surrounding consumption and the economy,'''' said Shinji Kikuchi, head of research at the association.
``Wages haven''t started to rise steadily, and there''s still concern over job security.''''
A decline in demand for clothing accounted for 4 points of the 5.7 percent drop, the association said. One fewer Sunday and late-starting clearance sales contributed to the decline, and a typhoon also depressed sales, the release said.
The results were based on figures from 99 companies operating 287 department stores across the country.
Sales of Aeon Co., Ito-Yokado Co. and other supermarket chains also fell in June, dropping 4.1 percent from a year earlier to 1.16 trillion yen, the Japan Chain Store Association said in a separate release today. The results were based on 97 companies operating 8,265 supermarkets and carried out on an existing-store basis.
Supermarket sales dropped 2.9 percent to 7.02 trillion yen in the six months to June 30 from the same period a year earlier. Sales of department stores during the same period dropped 2 percent to 3.8 trillion yen, the Department Stores Association said. |
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