Super Bowl Shift Crimps Chain Store Comps

By Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 2/4/2010

New York - Super Bowl's Feb. 7 date, the latest the big game has been scheduled in its history, hurt comparable store sales of consumer electronics at national discount chains during January.

Last year's Super Bowl was held Feb. 1 but the 2010 game marks the seventh straight year the game has been held this month.

Among retailers reporting monthly sales, Target said revenue rose 3.6 percent in January to $4.3 billion while comp sales edged up 0.5 percent.

The company said CE led a low double-digit comp sale decline in its hardlines category due to the late Super Bowl date.

At Costco, net sales rose 10 percent to $5.6 billion last month and comp sales were flat excluding the positive impact of rising gasoline prices.

Costco said it CE and appliance business was down by the mid-single digits year-over-year due largely to a "significant decline" in TV unit and dollar sales, which it also attributed to the Super Bowl shift. TV sales rebounded substantially during the first week of February in anticipation of the big game, the warehouse club said.

At BJ's Wholesale Club, net sales rose 13 percent to $742.6 million last month and comps grew 3 percent excluding gasoline. The company estimates that the timing change of Super Bowl negatively impacted total comp sales by about 2 percent. As a result, TVs were among the chain's weakest year-over-year performers, along with pre-recorded, BJs said.