Placer Bytes: Dillard's, JC Penney & Ross

In this Placer Bytes, we dive into two department brands and look at Ross after its expansion announcement.

Department Trends Ahead of Critical Holiday Season

September produced a much-needed break from the stagnant traffic levels JCPenney had seen since the recovery kicked off in earnest for the brand in June. Visits were down 35.8% year over year, buoyed by Labor Day weekend, a welcome improvement over the three months prior when visits were down an average of 43.6%. Dillard’s, on the other hand, did not see a similar trend with visits taking a step back in recent months after reaching rates that were down just 37.2% in June. Instead August and September saw visit rates down 42.7% and 41.7% respectively.

Yet, a significant turnaround does appear to be underway for the department brand. For the weeks beginning October 5th, 12th and 19th Dillard’s saw weekly visits down an average of 31.6% year over year. During this same period, JCPenney saw visits down an average of 38.4%, a step back from a Labor Day driven September, but still, progress on the summer months. And these positive results come at a critical time ahead of the holiday season.

Ross

Ross Stores recently announced it would be expanding by over 3 dozen locations across the country. And this decision appears to make a tremendous amount of sense, even in the current retail environment. Visits to Ross locations have been steadily rising since traffic bottomed out in April as a result of COVID. Since that point, every month has seen steady traffic growth, with August and September seeing the visit gap decline to just 22.3% and 18.2% respectively.

And critically, the pace does not appear to be slowing down. Ross visits were down an average of just 14.7% the weeks beginning October 5th, 12th, and 19th. This success, especially in a time of major difficulties in the wider apparel sector further deepens the faith that many off-price retailers have put in offline locations.