Clothes Line

According to The New York Times, many apparel retailers are getting ready to announce healthy sales numbers for February.

Predictions for the month's sales have been rising sharply over the last week. In a week, analysts have raised their predictions on department stores’ same-store February sales increases from 1.6 percent to 4.6 percent. A year ago, department stores suffered through a 5 percent sales decline in February.

The Times says that both Wal-Mart Stores (Bentonville, Ark.) and Target (Minneapolis) are expected to show significant gains, while The Gap (San Francisco) could prove an exception to the rule with a weaker performance than last year. Retailers will announce the actual numbers tonight and tomorrow.

Analysts said the increases were in part a result of excitement over the new department store lines produced by Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein; the appeal of trendier clothes from teenager-oriented retailers; and better weather conditions over the weekends of Valentine's Day and Washington's Birthday.

The Times noted that last year’s sales were marred by a storm that wiped out an entire selling weekend, making this year’s results seem like “easy comps” in comparison. But it quoted one analyst as saying, “It's not just the weather. Our very robust 7.2 percent comp gain is driven at least equally by increases in real demand and early acceptance of fashion newness this spring.”

The Gap was not the only retailer cited as an exception to the trend. While The Limited (Columbus, Ohio), Federated Department Stores (Cincinnati) and The May Department Stores Co. (St. Louis) were all raising their estimates and reporting record traffic in stores, weakness was detected among the moderately priced apparel retailers like Kohl's (Menomonee Falls, Wis.), J. C. Penney (Plano, Texas) and Sears Roebuck & Co. (Hoffman Estates, Ill.).