Wanted: holiday cheer
new york » The holiday shopping season is always amake-or-break period for struggling retailers.
But this year, the fight to grab shoppers has intensified, making it difficult for stores to use the season that accounts for about 20 percent of the retail industry’s annual sales to bounce back.
Here are four retailers with years of sales declines that could use a good holiday season:
• The company, which operates Kmart and Sears, has been struggling for years as it faces increasingly stiff competition from Walmart, Target and Home Depot. Critics say Sears has failed to update shabby and tired stores.
The company on Thursday said its revenue fell 13 percent in the third quarter. In the first three-quarters of the year, Sears has lost $1.6 billion.
• RadioShackCorp.: Long knownas a destination for batteries and obscure electronic parts, RadioShack’s problem has been that the functions of so many products it sold have been taken up by smartphones. So it sought to remake itself as a specialist in wireless devices and accessories. But growth in that business is slowing because more people have smartphones and see fewer reasons to upgrade.
It warned in September that it might need to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy, which wasn’t unexpected.
• Aeropostale Inc.: The teen retailer is facing widening losses and falling sales and its forecast for the holiday quarter mostly fell short of analysts’ predictions.
Aeropostale, like many traditional teen destinations, has struggled with changing fashion tastes among teens. Those chains face intense competition fromfast-fashion retailers like Forever 21 and H&M.
• J.C. Penney Co.: The department store operator is still trying to recover from a botched transformation plan spearheaded by former CEO Ron Johnson that sent its sales in a free fall and resulted in mounting losses.
Mike Ullman returned to the CEO job in April 2013 and has stabilized the business by restoring discounts and basic merchandise.