Retailwatch November 2011

Welcome to Retailwatch for November 2011

To view the full report click here

There were no particular surprises in November's retail spending, with all categories showing a small increase except Books & Stationery and Recreation & Entertainment, which continue to struggle compared to the same month last year. The only category up significantly against November 2010 is Fuel & Service Stations, which is of course no shock.

Furniture stores and Department stores have staged a bit of a comeback with positive year-on-year results and Cafes/Restaurants/Bars continue to show growth. Regionally, everywhere but Hawkes Bay had growth in Cafes/Restaurants/Bars spending, and everywhere but Nelson/Marlborough lost ground in Recreation & Entertainment. Nationally, Supermarket spend was up 1.8%, but this was not evenly spread as spending was up 4.1% in the South Island compared to 1.1% in the North Island.

Clothing & Footwear spend was mixed regionally; the only standout was Canterbury which had numbers over 10% higher than last November. Department Stores and Furniture, Appliances, & Home wares stores also did very well in Canterbury in a month where most other regions were around flat. Health Goods spending took a hammering in the Northland Region, but the rest of the country was generally positive.

Overall, Metro spending was up over twice as much as spending in non-Metro areas, and interestingly Wellington did not contribute to this as their spend numbers were much the same as last year. It will be interesting to see if the initial pickup in retail spending steals some of December's thunder, or is this just a positive indication of what's to come.

If you would like a copy of the Metropolitan and Non-metropolitan reports,

email: retailwatch@datamine.com

Retailwatch can be used to monitor trends in specific categories that are relevant to you while also building a broader picture of the overall retail environment.

The team at Datamine can also help you explore further the impacts of retail industry trends on your business.

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