U.S. retail reports suggest sluggish November

U.S. retailers are reporting sluggish sales results for November, as a modestly positive start to the holiday shopping season wasn't strong enough to offset weak spending the rest of the month.

According to early results Thursday, several stores were reporting sales declines.

Children's Place Retail Stores Inc. said sales at its Canadian stores were off 18 per cent in November, while U.S. numbers were down 13 per cent, falling well below Wall Street's expectations. Online sales, which are also included in the monthly results, dipped two per cent.

There were some increases reported.

Costco Wholesale Corp. said sales were up six per cent, just shy of the 8.1 per cent gain analysts had predicted.

Another bright spot was Limited Brands Inc., which runs Victoria's Secret and Bath & Body Works. It reported a three per cent gain, surpassing estimates from analysts who had expected a 2.5 per cent decline.

E-commerce sales were also positive. They grew five per cent on Cyber Monday compared with a year ago, according to a report in the Wall Street Journal. Cyber Monday is the first Monday after the American Thanksgiving, which is also marked by Black Friday, the day U.S. retailers typically move into the black, or profitability.

U.S. shoppers spent $887 million US on Monday, Nov. 30, an online record according to the tracking company comScore Inc.

Economists say that depressed spending could persist for several years amid stubbornly high levels of unemployment in the U.S., which is now at 10.2 per cent, the highest in 26 years.

"We would have liked to have seen a bigger pop" to the start of the holiday season, said Ken Perkins, president of U.S. retail research firm Retail Metrics. He noted that the sales were even weaker than November 2008, when spending plummeted amid a financial meltdown.

"This suggests that consumers are still under a significant amount of pressure from unemployment and job worries," he said.