United States Of America : Winter Storms Force Major Retailers to Reduce Sales Forcast

For many retailers, Presidents Day is an occasion to entice shoppers with big discounts. But this year, storms blanketed much of the Northeast with at least two feet of snow, curbing travel over the three-day holiday weekend and confining millions of people to their homes.

Because of the snow, many businesses failed to open at all on Presidents Day, Monday, Feb. 17, a national holiday.

J.C. Penney Co. Inc. and Federated Department Stores Inc. said weather-related disruptions hurt sales so much in the week ended Feb. 21 that they had reduced their sales forecasts for the full month.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., the world's biggest retailer, said it was also hurt by the storms, but sales recovered as the week went on and the company left its February sales forecast unchanged.

In a recorded statement, Bentonville, Arkansas-based Wal-Mart said U.S. same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, were running at low end of its target for an increase of 2 percent to 4 percent for the full month.

Wal-Mart said the strongest-selling product categories in the latest week were electronics, food, outerwear, pet supplies and hardware -- all supplies used by people holed up in their homes or bracing for low temperatures.

"Wal-Mart is such a supplier of basic goods. Much more of their business is food these days," said John Lawrence, retail analyst for the Memphis-based brokerage Morgan Keegan & Co. "From a geographic standpoint, they're all over the country, so weather in certain regions is mitigated somewhat by a national footprint."

He added, "Despite the weather or whatever, it's no surprise that they outperform the group. We've seen this over the years."

Wal-Mart said customer traffic was down in the latest week, but the dollar value of the average transaction was up.