It
can be difficult to get a true assessment of retail performance around
Christmas as marketing hype is fed out to consumers but the cold hard reality
of the Australian share market paints a very clear picture, and it is not good.
Myer's
share price fell by nearly 10% on Thursday following the announcement that
their Christmas sales in the first two weeks of December were down 5%. The
second worst performer on the ASX 300 that day was Accent Corporation (footwear
group for brands like Vans, Skechers, and Dr.Martens) with a 7.4% share price
drop. The share price of both retailers has fallen more than 40% over the last
12 months.
In
the top 10 worst performers on the ASX300 for the year, four were retailers -
RFG Corp (Gloria Jeans, Brumbys, Donut King), Myer, Thorn Group (Radio
Rentals), and Vita Group (mobile phones).
Clearly there is a lot more to retail decline than any local trading conditions. This is an Australia wide (if not global) retail phenomena.