Deflation is on its way on the US apparel market with a fall of 4% in retail sales reported at clothing stores in October. This is partly due to declining consumer prices, down 1% from the previous month and more significantly falling from a year earlier. Apparel chains announced a sharper drop in their October sales with a double-digit fall for a large number of them.

US apparel retail sales started seriously declining in October, according to latest official data.

Sales at clothing stores were down 1.4% from the previous month, taking account of seasonal variations and holidays.

Compared with a year earlier, sales fell 4% in October. They were still rising 1.2% in August before losing 3.40% in September.

This is in line with an amount of total retail sales on the US market down 4.1% from a year earlier in October.

The fall of 2.8% from the previous month for total retail sales was the largest monthly drop on record.

Falling Prices

US apparel chains had previously released depressing results for October with significantly larger declines than in previous months.

Comparable store sales were down 16% for instance at Gap Inc.'s stores in October, compared with a fall of 11% in September.

Department stores heavily suffered with a 26.8% plunge at Neiman Marcus.

Data reflect a sharper decrease in sales of most expensive products while price pressure is clearly felt from US consumers.

Apparel prices are obviously falling, as a result.

Consumer apparel and footwear prices declined 1% in October from the previous month, even falling 2.4% over the last three-month period, from the same period a year earlier, according to the US Department of Labor.

Prices of men's and boys apparel were down 2% while women's and girls' apparel prices declined 2.2%.


Date : 21/11/2008