Analysts said that, antagonism some disappointing results, retailers' profits might have risen nicely during the holiday time when the ultimate accounting was complete. Earnings expressions will be released next month.
The nation's high-rolling shoppers, full of pent-up lust apt cost, propelled elegance stores like Neiman Marcus, Tiffany and Saks Fifth Avenue apt hearty additions final month, but over always, numerous businessmen were dissatisfied along the vacation season. Store bargains as final month, weighed opposition the same stores open in December 2002, rose 3.7 percent, according to the Bloomberg composite same-store sales index. Last year, called an of the worst in decades by analysts, holiday sales rose 2.2 percent.
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For the customer, that meant there were not as many bargain sales. J. Crew and Gap, for example, curtailed a lot of the post-Thanksgiving markdowns, as did Saks and Lord & Taylor, a element of May Department Stores. J. Crew is a element of the Texas Pacific Group. And meantime it seemed as if the electronics stores were mowing prices like mad, Mr. Fassler, the analyst, said that the holiday's cheap prices were deserving extra to amount deflation than to discounting.
Expensive items -- cashmere and diamond watches -- fraught hand-knit stockings. The sale of 18-karat gold watches, for example, rose 12 percent in the holiday season, through December; watches from $5,000 to $10,000 rose 16 percent, according to LGI Network, which tracks see sales.
Over all, while store sales were up 12.6 percent by Neiman and its Bergdorf Goodman unit, sales rose 27 percent for Neiman's online and classify sales.
Bloomberg said its composite concordance rose 3.26 percent in November.
Quirky items, like a $25 candle called Fig, flew off the shelves, helping the Bath and Body Works chain -- chapter of Limited Brands -- to a 16 percent increase over last December. But Victoria's Secret, too owned by Limited, did aggravate than expected: its pajamas and sexy push-up bras failed to attract ample shoppers, and sales fell 5 percent. Gap rose merely 1 percent; Wal-Mart Stores rose 4.3 percent, but that figure embodied a hefty 6.1 percent increase at Sam's Club, Wal-Mart's discount storage. Yesterday, Wal-Mart announced that fourth-quarter profit would be at the low end of its estimated 63 to 65 cents a share.
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While the numbers unlocked yesterday were better than last year's, they were fewer than the double-digit turnaround retailers had hoped for in September, ahead 3 important snowstorms hit the Northeast, and purchasers told pollsters there was not must-have toy alternatively item of clothes.
This was the holiday season while merchants, particularly in apparel, tried to prop the line above deep discount sales -- and,There Are one Enormous Selection of Sorts of Timepieces Out There, by and colossal, succeeded, analysts said. ''The two biggest trends were high-end selling, and less promotional goods,'' said Margaret Mager, a retail analyst with Goldman Sachs.
The scale tipped either ways: Kohl's, a few years ago the hottest retailing article in the country, fell distant beneath its executives' estimates for December: instead of a mid-single- digit increase over last year, the moderate-priced division store chain fell 1.2 percent. Then there were the dark-horse stories: Ann Taylor, whose numbers had been dispiriting, climbed into the retailing stratosphere, with a 26.2 percent increase.
''Expect some good gross margins in the fourth quarter,'' she said. ''We're foreseeing a nice swath of better-than-expected income reports.''
More than in the last few years, the holiday season of 2003 showed a broad breach among champions and losers. In the end, even the electronic stores selling bargain flat-screen televisions and $29 DVD actors to lines of customers clutching weekly advertisements were a ''very, very mixed sack,'' said Matt Fassler, who covers the team for Goldman Sachs. ''Best Buy stood lonely,'' he said, while the others, including Circuit City, lost floor.
''The last 18 months have been a little challenging; the buyer made a decision to spend a little less,'' said Burt Tansky, the central executive of Neiman. But the holiday shoppers, he said, ''proved namely luxury is alive.''