November Same Store Sales Generally Weak

This morning's news flow on same-store sales shows that November was not a friendly month for the malls.  Of the 24 companies that issued results, only eight showed an increase versus November of last year and seven managed to beat the Briefing.com analyst estimate.  It's hard to believe that retailers couldn't post better sales than last year when the financial markets were in free-fall.  However, one could make the argument that last year's sales came at the expense of margins, so even though sales are down, less aggressive discounting could help margins improve. 

With the bulk of retailers reporting weak November numbers, it's hard to anticipate a strong holiday season, especially since many companies rolled out holiday promotions earlier than expected. 

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