Framingham, Mass. – TJX Cos. cut its full-year forecast today amid softer sales, but struck of bullish tone about buying plans and the overall business.

“We are in terrific inventory position, and we have plenty of open-to-buy to take advantage of current environment,” company president and CEO Ernie Herrman told investors during this morning’s quarterly call.

Same-store sales at HomeGoods fell 13% as sales declined 11% to $18.6 billion during the quarter. However, Hermann said, inventories are “very clean,” and the team there has significant open-to-buy.

The 3 key takeaways about the company’s plans for home:

• Over the next few weeks, HomeGoods plans to buy 4 million units that will begin flowing into stores in September. Buyers will focus on the categories that are generating the best performance, he said, although he did not provide specifics.
• At the Marmaxx division, home comp was down by low teens on top of a 37% spike last year. Apparel now accounts for roughly 5% more of the mix, but home still has a bigger place in the assortment than it did in 2020.
• The consumer pull-back in home spending has been factored into go-forward planning at the company, and some funding has shifted from HomeGoods to Marmaxx.

TJX  plans to resume its store remodeling program “very aggressively,” said Hermman, and is beginning to roll out a new Marshalls prototype.

“There’s an opportunity for us to get more brick and mortar share from the other brick and mortar out there,” he added.

Total net sales for the second quarter ended July 30 declined 2% to $11.8 billion. U.S. comp store sales fells 5% versus a 21% increase in U.S. open-only comp store sales in the year-ago quarter. Net income rose 3% to $809 million, or $.69 per diluted share.

TJX Cos. now expects full-year comp in the U.S. to decline 2% to 3%. Previously, it forecast a 1% to 2% comp increase. Adjusted per-share earnings are now expected to land in the $3.05 to $3.13 range, compared with the prior forecast of $3.13 to $3.20.

See also:

• HomeGoods, Big Lots gain Q2 share in home as Bed Bath & Beyond declines further
• TJX home biz climbs down off explosive growth, but remains solid

Minneapolis, MN – Target Corp. continues cutting back on discretionary inventory to invest more in rapidly-growing frequency categories.

This morning, the company announced it has also reduced fall season receipts in discretionary categories by more than $1.5 billion.

While Target is planning cautiously for the remainder of the year, executives said current trends support the company’s prior guidance for full-year revenue growth in the low- to mid-single digit range and an operating margin rate in a range around 6% in the back half of the year.

Target Corp. took a 90% net earnings blow in the second quarter as shoppers shifted their spending to necessities, forcing the chain to go heavy on inventory clearance and, ultimately, cripple its profitability.

The result: Net earnings of $183 million, or $.38 per diluted share, down from $1.817 billion, or $3.65 per diluted share, a year ago.

Short on discretionary spending dollars, inflation-impacted shoppers streamlined their expenses to focus on food and beverage, household and beauty essentials. That, in turn, put pressure on the company to “rightsize” its inventories across the board early in the summer, particularly on items including home, luggage and other categories.

These actions “put significant pressure on our near-term profitability,” said chairman and CEO Brian Cornell.

Still, the company’s traffic and units grew, giving moderate boosts to sales and comps for the three-month period ended July 30.

Total revenue was up 3.5% to $26.037 million versus $25.160 million, and comp sales rose by 2.6% on top of 8.9 percent growth last year.

Additionally, store comps increased 1.3% on top of 8.7% growth last year, and digital comps grew 9.0% following growth of 9.9% last year.

In its earnings results today, Target also pointed out other quarterly strides: an increase in unit share in all five of its core merchandising categories; an almost 11% increase in same-day services – led by Drive Up, which grew in the mid-teens on top of more than 80% last year; and fulfilling more than 95% of Target’s Q2 sales at its stores.

See more:

Target swinging an axe at existing orders as it confronts inventory glut

Target celebrates remodelling milestone and keeps on rolling

Atlanta – Home Depot remains bullish about its business this year, coming off a booming second quarter.

Comp sales for the second quarter ended July 31 were up 5.8% on a consolidated basis and up 5.4% in the U.S. Same-store sales in its home décor division, which exists largely online, were positive although slightly below the company average, execs said.

During the quarter, the home improvement giant expanded its StyleWell private label décor brand into kids’ bedding and bath. Home Depot is the 12th largest seller of home textiles in the U.S. market, with 2021 sales of more than $760 million.

Total company sales rose 6.5% to $43.8 billion. Net earnings were up 7.6% to $5.17 billion.

See also:

Home Depot expands on private label bedding and bath

Menomonee Falls, Wis. – Kohl’s has named Christie Raymond as the company’s new chief marketing officer.

“I’m thrilled to have Christie step into the role of chief marketing officer for Kohl’s,” said Michelle Gass, Kohl’s CEO. “She joined Kohl’s several years ago bringing her tremendous experience and customer-driven leadership approach to the marketing organization.”

Raymond joined Kohl’s in 2017 as senior vice president, media and personalization, and moved up to executive vice president, customer engagement, analytics and insights in June 2020. She has been acting as the interim chief marketing officer since May 2022.

“Christie has been an asset to our senior executive team and she will be instrumental in our continued path forward as we deliver great value, a compelling brand portfolio and an inviting omnichannel experience to our millions of customers nationwide,” Gass added.

Raymond will lead the marketing organization including Kohl’s overall marketing strategy, brand and creative, media, loyalty, customer analytics, corporate communications, and Kohl’s philanthropic efforts. To support the company’s strategy to be the retailer of choice for the active and casual lifestyle, she will drive customer engagement, leverage the company’s leadership in loyalty, accelerate customer traffic, scale Kohl’s Media Network, and continue to build the Kohl’s brand.

Prior to Kohl’s, Christie held progressive roles at The Walt Disney Company. She has more than 20 years of marketing, retail industry and leadership experience.

See also:

• Kohl’s retools its plans now that acquisition deal with FG has tanked
• Home at Kohl’s slams up against a new shopping environment

Boston – Speaking at a retail conference here recently, Casper CEO Emilie Arel said the direct-to-consumer mattress and sleep accessories brand is focused on becoming profitable.

According to a story by Retail Dive, Arel told the group at eTail’s annual conference in Boston that the company is no longer “in the business of not making money anymore.”

During the event, Arel highlighted a number of cost-cutting initiatives, including the company’s decision to pull back on its planned store opening. She said the company is focused on controlling costs, cutting its marketing spend and zeroing in on its core product – mattresses – and slowing its store expansion plan. Last year, the company had said it would have 200 company-owned stores in North America.

Arel told the conference that the 73 stores currently in operation would be enough for at least a year as the company embarks on a “culture of frugality.”

The company, which filed its initial public offering in 2020, struggled to turn a profit. In 2021, Arel was named CEO of the company, and with its third quarter earnings report, Casper announced it would be taken private by Durational Capital Management.

The deal was sparked by challenges, including supply chain woes that arose during the pandemic, a miscalculation on its marketing budget and ongoing struggles to become profitable.

See also:

• Blog: Will Casper’s next step make the difference?
• People to Watch: Emilie Arel, Casper

Bentonville, Ark. – Walmart U.S. in recent weeks has been capturing more business from middle- and higher-income shoppers. But they’re mostly sticking to the food and consumables aisles.

For the second consecutive quarter, general merchandise comp sales were down in the mid single digits, with particular softness in electronics, apparel and home products. The strongest categories were automotive, lawn & garden and back-to-school.

At Sam’s Club, the home and apparel division comped up in the low teens, led by strength in apparel, outdoor living, seasonal and toys.

Key merchandising takeaways from this morning’s Q2 call with investors:

Inventory clearance. At the close of Q2, inventory was down 15 percentage points, but Walmart is still working through excesses in electronics, home and sporting goods. “We’ve also canceled billions of dollars in inventory to align with anticipated demand,” said John David Rainey, EVP/CFO.

Selective investments. Merchants have reassessed demand on a sub-category by sub-category basis, cancelling orders in the process in some cases. Walmart Inc. president and CEO Doug McMillon said the company will still bet big on items it expects to pay off, citing Halloween inflatables as an example. “You don’t want to go into too much of a defensive mode,” he said.

Second half seasonal goods. Fall and holiday products are focused on newness and heavily tilted toward opening price points. “We expect inflation to continue to influence the choices families make,” said McMillon.

Looking ahead. The overall business at Walmart U.S. is much larger than it was in 2019. “Next year, we’ll see purchasing levels that are more in line with the way we see demand going in terms of the mix today,” said John Furner, president and CEO of the division.

Total Walmart Inc. revenue for the quarter was $152.9 billion, up 8.4%, or 9.1% in constant currency. Operating income fell 6.8% to $6.9 billion.

See also:

• 3 reasons why Walmart now expects difficult terrain for general merchandise
• The Good, the Bad & the Ugly: Walmart | Warren Shoulberg

New York – Seven leading volume retailers with combined annual home textiles sales of $17.6 billion will report their second quarter results this week. Here’s a quick hit list of what to look for.

Walmart: Reports 8/16. Home textiles sales = $7.1 billion

A month ago, Walmart cut its full-year guidance, saying the slowdown in general merchandise sales that began in Q1 was still ongoing, thus causing more markdowns than it had planned for. Earlier this month, Walmart laid off more than 200 headquarters staff as part of a restricting in the home office. Are things looking any rosier for the bellwether retailer?

Target: Reports 8/17. Home textiles sales = $4.2 billion

A rapid shift in the sales mix during Q1 left Target overloaded with inventory in categories like home, and it began planning more conservatively in discretionary categories. But Target is also a big destination for Back-to-Campus, especially dorm essentials. Its investor update this week should provide an early read on the season.

TJX Cos: Reports 8/17. Home textiles sales = $3.5 billion

The blistering pace of growth at TJX cooled down in Q1. Comp at HomeGoods declined 7% on top of a 40% increase in the year-ago quarter, and the home department comp at Marmaxx was off at a similar pace. However, the overall home business was described as very healthy and execs said shoppers were taking price increases in stride. We’ll find out on Wednesday whether that’s still the case.

Kohl’s: Reports 8/18. Home textiles sales = $1.5 billion

In early July, Kohl’s announced that business was even softer than it had anticipated and adjusted its expectations down accordingly. In home, where Q1 sales tumbled 17%, Kohl’s said it would pursue ancillary growth in home décor categories where it has relatively little share. We could get more insight on those plans this week.

Ross Stores: Reports 8/18. Home textiles sales = $1.3 billion

The off-pricer received its second quarter home goods imports earlier than expected, and with demand for the home category declining, Ross stored them in packaway and planned to flow them later this year. Ross execs said they expected sales and profitability to improve over the course of the year. We’ll learn this week if the there are any signs that the tide has begun to turn.

Home Depot and Lowe’s: Report 8/16. Combined home textiles sales = $1.17 billion

Home Depot kicked off the year with a strong Q1 performance as DIY customers continued to trade up for better-quality home improvement products. Execs were feeling optimistic about medium-to-longer term  demand. Lowe’s wasn’t as lucky, with first quarter sales down 4% on what the home improvement retailer attributed to unseasonably cooler spring temperatures, although sales trends began improving in May. The question: How will the outlook each shares this week be impacted by the flattening house market?

Chicago – Though the payouts may be relatively meager, some relief could be coming for suppliers left holding the bag when Sears Holdings filed for bankruptcy four years ago.

Last week, Sears Holdings and its one-time creditors said they have reached a settlement, according to multiple reports. The $175 million settlement arose from a suit against former CEO and majority owner Eddie Lampert and other investors, who plaintiffs accused of steadily stripping assets from the company in the years preceding its Chapter 11 filing.

The settlement requires approval from the federal bankruptcy court.

Retail Dive reports the Sears Holding settlement would be funded through three entities: $125.6 million from insurers, $41.9 million from the defendants and $7.5 million from shareholding funds.

What remains of Sears Holdings was acquired by Lampert-controlled Transformco in 2019. Although e-commerce operations continue, there are fewer than two dozen Sears and Kmart stores locations in operations today.

See also:

Kmart closes the last store in its original home state

Helsingborg, Sweden — For nearly two weeks, Aug. 25-Sept. 10, the annual Ikea Festival will space nine cities around the world with 10 topics to celebrate people’s creativity and inventiveness at home.

The festival will take place in online around the world and in nine host stores, including two in the U.S.: Austin, Texas, and Brooklyn, N.Y., as well as Madrid, Paris, Vienna, Shanghai, Stockholm, Sweden, Sydney and Tokyo.

The nine host stores each day will host in-store events, live shopping, social media content creators and a new web platform to watch the festival around the world as it focuses on food, sports, gaming, music and dance, nature, fashion and beauty, collecting, arts and crafts, focus and wellness, and pets.

“It has been a joy to see Ikea Festival grow over the past few years,” said Marcus Engman, chief creative office of Ingka Group. “This time, we are focusing on people who want to spend more time doing their hobbies and passions.

“A Billy bookcase is a Billybookcase in every Ikea store in the world,” he added. “It’s when you take it home that it transforms. That intersection is what we want to explore and celebrate during Ikea Festival.”

In addition to the nine host cities, Ikea Festival will take place in other Ikea stores, with activities such as speed dating with home furnishing specialists, food trucks serving up the latest Ikea food offering, events in store and special offers for Ikea Family members.

Highlights include:

• On Aug. 26, Ikea Round Rock in Austin will be kicking off the festival with inspiration on how to transform your living area to co-create music, how to celebrate and make room for your instruments and music memorabilia both large and small, and an open floor disco showing how you can flex your living space into a dance floor.
• On Aug. 27, at Ikea Wien Westbahnhof in Vienna, learn how to make famous Viennese biscuits vegan style, join an upcycling workshop and see the live opening of a new curated shop within one of the store’s famous cubes.
• On Aug 28, Ikea Xuhui, Shanghai, will treat visitors to a visit to the homes of two home furnishing co-workers with a passion for handicraft and homemade food. They will show how to organise tools and materials for crafting, as well as how to make wall decorations from zero and finally how to make plum wine.
• On Sept. 2, at Ikea Brooklyn, New York, highlights include a fashion show in Köket showcasing the best of Brooklyn design and advice around workspace and storage solutions.
• On Sept. 3, Ikea Tempe, Sydney, will offer tips from an avid traveller on small space van living, fresh ideas from a vegan foodie on sustainable plant-based eating, and a live music set played on the Sydney Harbor.
• On Sept. 4, in Stockholm, the newly opened Ikea City in Gallerian offers a day of gaming online and in the store, with live interviews with gamers from the Swedish Gaming National team, and a visit to the home of a celebrity chef and to the home a former athlete who’s going to show off his hobby room and sneaker collection.
• On Sept. 8, Ikea City in Harajuku, Tokyo, offers three live-steam sessions to explore fashion tips from an upcoming fashion icon. Also, share your passion for collecting and be inspired by delicious but simple recipes.
• On Sept. 9, gaming will be the focus of the day in Ikea San Sebastian de los Reyes, Madrid, with a room makeover for a young gamer and a roundtable talk with a psychologist and Gen Z influencers regarding mental health and connected to gaming, sports and music.
• Finally, on Sept. 10, at Ikea Décoration, in Paris, viewers will meet a tufting expert, a florist building a Tiny House in the Vosges, and Milo, a cat like no other, shares his morning routine with his human.

See also:

• Ikea CEO reveals what the coming ‘new era of retail’ will look like

Little Rock, Ark. – Although business went slack during the second quarter, Dillard’s retail sales for the first half logged double-digit increases.

The regional department store company reported that retail sales for the 26 weeks ended July 30 rose 10% to $3.13 billion – a figure that excludes operations from the company’s CDI Contractors construction business. Comp sales were also up 10%.

“Business softened in the [2nd] quarter as we lapped the strongest second quarter in our history. Our first half performance was far better than last year’s, with net income up 21%, earnings per share up 44% and gross margin up 240 basis points,” said William T.  Dillard II, company CEO.

Total retail sales for the second quarter ended July 30 ticked up 1.0% to $1.553 billion while sales in comparable stores were flat. Stronger performing categories included men’s apparel and accessories and cosmetics. Ladies’ apparel was the weakest performing category.

Q2 net income fell 12.0% to $163.4 million, or $9.30 per share.

See also:

Dillard’s turns in strong Q4

Dillard’s: Home goods take a back seat as apparel surges