CE A Drag On Jan. Sales: Discounters

Alan Wolf -- TWICE, 2/2/2012

New York - Target and Costco gave little credit to CE for their solid sales gains in January.

Rather, Target said its CE, music, movies and books business led a mid-single-digit decline in its hardlines category last month. Nonetheless, the discounter reported a 5.1 percent increase in net sales for the four weeks, ended Jan. 29, to $4.6 billion, and a 4.3 percent hike in comp-store sales.

Similarly, Costco finance director David Sherwood said the warehouse club's CE business "continued to be negative" in January, posting a mid-single-digit decline, while Costco's net sales rose 11 percent for the month, to $7 billion, and comp-store sales increased 8 percent excluding the positive impact of gasoline sales.