BERWYN, Pa. — An unusually warm and snow-free month of January favored retailers offering variety and convenience — and likely was a mixed blessing for supermarkets.
This January was the third warmest in the U.S. in 50 years and had the least amount of snowfall since 2006, according to a report issued Tuesday from Planalytics here. Those conditioned favored broadline sellers and home improvement retailers and punished softline retailers selling winter apparel. Food retailers saw less “pantry loading” than they did a year ago but more consistent shopping patterns, Evan Gold, senior vice president of client services, Planalytics, told SN in a phone interview Tuesday.
Categories negatively affected by the warmer weather include cold-weather staples like hot chocolate, soup and ice melt — the latter experiencing a 42% decline in demand — Gold said.
“People were buying with more normal consumer patterns this year, they didn’t have to make as many need-based purchases,” Gold said. “From a traffic perspective, year-over-year there are days where they’re comping some great sales days a year ago where there was a threat of a storm. This year it’s down significantly because there was no threat.”
Planalytics figures showed restaurants — as well as discounters Target and Dollar General — experienced better conditions for sales than they did a year ago, mainly because people were better able to travel to them.
“For grocery stores, it’s more a matter of managing the supply chain knowing that consumers are going to come in and buy significantly more on a Tuesday or a Wednesday if there’s snow in the forecast, when they might more typically shop on a Friday or Saturday,” Gold said.
