Trying to lure customers back, sooner
Shoppers such as Sher Trombley have been giving Target fits for months.
She’s making lists and trying mightily to stick to them. Spring clothes? That’s the type of impulse buy she’s trying to avoid.
She makes two trips a month to a Target, but added that she’s “just trying to stay out of stores these days.”
Since before Christmas, Minneapolis-based Target Corp. has reported that, while people such as Trombley may be spending more money at their stores, they’re not coming in to shop as often.
Conventional wisdom in recent years has been that Target’s higher-end customers were more insulated from rising fuel and food prices than those at rival Wal-Mart Stores Inc. Target’s designer names such as Isaac Mizrahi and Michael Graves drew in shoppers because of their trendy looks and affordable prices.
But the tide may have turned. Target, which has struggled with flat and declining sales in recent months, releases quarterly results Tuesday, and the Minneapolis-based retailer faces the possibility of worse same-store sales results than Wal-Mart for the first time in 12 consecutive quarters. Wal-Mart posted a better-than-expected fourth-quarter profit gain of 4 percent last week, with same-store sales — a key barometer of a retailer’s health — rising 1 percent, as penny-pinchers searched for deals.
Share prices have reversed as well, with Wal-Mart climbing while Target is brushing 18-month lows.
