It has been a difficult few years for traditional brick and mortar retailers, especially for department stores. Just this morning, the September Non-Farm Payrolls report showed that the retail sector shed 11,400 jobs in September and has lost a total of 197K jobs since the sector’s peak reading in January 2017. With things being so bad for the sector for so long, though, there seems to be an increasing number of investors who think that the sector is due for a rebound but based on the latest data from our Pulse report it doesn’t look like things are showing any sign of improvement. In fact, trends may actually be getting worse.
The chart below is from a question that asks respondents which department stores they have visited over the last month or whether they haven’t visited any of them at all. In this month’s survey, a record of 55.4% of respondents said they didn’t visit any of the department stores listed, while the percentage of consumers visiting each individual department store is at or near record lows. There was a time in the not so distant past where the seven stores listed were the first store shoppers thought of when they were planning to shop, but today they don’t even come to mind.
(Click on image to enlarge)
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