Bye Bye Abercrombie

In retailing, the most important metric is same-store sales, or how much money shoppers have spent at outlets that have been open for a year. The figure highlights whether a retailing concept has staying power. Abercrombie & Fitch’s monthly sales releases … spin a tale of economic decline. In November 2003, same-store sales were down 13 percent compared to the previous November’s sales. That’s bad. Worse, it was the fourth straight year of same-store sales declines in November?the leading edge of the Christmas season. In November 2002, same-store sales fell 13 percent, and in the previous two Novembers, they fell 5 percent and 8 percent, respectively. In other words, an Abercrombie store that tallied $1 million in business in November 1999 rang up $666,000 in November 2003.