Good Retail Results for Holiday 2009

Bell ringing replaced hand wringing during the 2009 holiday selling season as retailers across the board reported better than expected results.

A 29.4% gain in online sales enabled Macy’s to report a 1% increase for the season. Meanwhile, Bloomingdale’s enjoyed an especially healthy month “highlighted by success in gifts and designer brands.”

Gap also managed a positive same-store sales performance for the month, growing 2% as results trended upward 7% at Old Navy and 1% at Gap North America despite a 3% decline at Banana Republic.

Elsewhere, Sears Holdings Corp. expects a higher fourth-quarter profit, which topped analysts’ average estimate, after its December same-store sales rose 0.4%. Wall Street had expected an average 5.1% drop, according to a Retail Metrics survey.

Costco Wholesale Corp.’s sales rose 9%, exceeding the 7.2% average estimate in the Retail Metrics projection.

Analysts had raised their December same-store-sales estimate by an average 0.3 percentage points since Dec. 24 to a 1.8% gain, according to Retail Metrics. Trade group International Council of Shopping Centers on Tuesday also raised its December estimate to a 2.5% increase from 2%.

These results are a far cry from what industry experts were predicting in October, when they insisted holiday sales would be even worse than 2008 results. It just goes to show you that financial experts didn’t predict the collapse of 2007 and didn’t predict the recovery of 2009 either.