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.
