Retailers Brace for Labor Day Weekend

NEW YORK (TheStreet) -- Is it too dramatic to say that Labor Day weekend could make or break retail for the second half of the year? Probably not.

With the national holiday a week later this year, shoppers have been procrastinating their back-to-school purchases, resulting in sluggish sales in August. August same-store sales eased, falling just 2%, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. The trade organization predicted a roughly 4% decline. These were the best monthly comparable sales results in nearly two years.

"Consumers are shopping much closer to need, and back-to-school is no exception," Brean Murray Carret analyst Eric Beder said. "If we don't see a boost in at least the teen sector, it will not bode well for the rest of the year and create some question marks for holiday."

But if a majority of the country experiences a wave of warm, sunny weather, results may not be as robust as hoped, Stifel Nicolaus analyst Richard Jaffe said.

If this is the case, it could result in the acceleration of promotions and clearance items, Needham analyst Christine Chen said. Typically, September is a full-price selling month, with October at a clearance.

Retail shares were mixed Friday morning, with the S&P Retail Index up 0.5% to 365.83.

Teen retailers were mostly in the red, with Abercrombie & Fitch (ANF Quote)dragging the sector down. Shares of Abercrombie tumbled 3.5% in afternoon trading to $29.88, after it was downgraded to sell by an analyst at Citi.