Back-to-school will tell retail

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If retailers, including Plano-based , are not pleased with the back-to-schoop season, it would be a strong indicatodr that consumer demand is essentially Goldstein said. There is optimism in the retail sector even though much of it is ownee by discountretailer , Goldsteimn told the Dallas Businesse Journal. Although average ticket pricea and average traffic figures are trending downwardr at most retailers that cater to the highand middle-income Wal-Mart is maintaining steady store traffic and a qualithy average ticket price, he “Definitely we’ve seen the worst performanced the higher up you go in the scale," Goldsteijn said.
While Wal-Mart is boosted by discounft shoppers that are still demanding food items and pharmaceuticals in a down Goldstein pointed to stores suchas Dallas-based upscale retailer and Manhattan-basexd as those who are sailing tougher "Neiman's same store sales were down at a mid-doubled digit rate for the past severalk months," he said. “That has been the toughest area. Consumers are staying back from more discretionary On Monday, Dallas-based Tuesday Morning (NASDAQ: Tues), which sellxs discount home accessory products, reported a slighgt uptick in traffic even as average ticketg prices dropped.
While Goldstein said he does not coverrTuesday Morning, he noted that home accessoruy and home furnishing store segmentse are working in a tougy area. “It ties back to the real estated market,” he said. “People don’t have the opportunity to furnisy anew home,” Goldstein said. He added that new home purchase s are the drivers of success in the homeretailo market. Corp. Customer receipts: Amounts on individualo receipts fell an averageof 6.7 percent. Fourth-quarter sales: $188.7 million, down from sales of $196.5 millio n in 2008. Traffic: increased 0.1 percenft in the fourth quarter. Total sales dropped 19.
4 percent in June Salees in Junehit $323 million, down from $401 millioj last year. Comparable same-store sales fell 20.8 hitting $317 million for the month of June, down from $401 millionh in the year-ago period. Same-store sales fell 8.2 percent in the five-weekj period that ended on July 4. Total salesx fell 6.7 percent in hitting $1.4 billion, down from $1.6 billion a year