WSJ Story on Retail Sales . . .

The Wall Street Journal reported on Friday that there was a decline in retail sales of 2.3% in April.

Major retailers reported a collective 2.3% decline in same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, according to an index of 51 leading chains compiled by the International Council of Shopping Centers.

This news has been in a number of news sites or blogs and it caused quite a drop in the markets (the DJIA lost 85 points or 0.64%) on Thursday when the news came out. But the interesting thing to me was the differences in the stores and their size by sales. Looking at the same store numbers most retailers were down. The notable exception is the higher-end retailers (Saks, Nordstrom’s, and Neiman Marcus), which all had increases the same period. The discount and mid-level stores where most US consumers shop (about 99% of sales for the stores in the survey) are down in sales.

The point - discount and mid-level stores drive consumer sales.