June Retail Sales Gain, CNBC Debates Brick and Mortar Comeback

U.S. retail sales for June rose by 0.6% from May to a seasonally adjusted $456.98 billion.
By Amanda Schiavo ,

NEW YORK (TheStreet) --U.S. retail sales for June rose by 0.6% from May to a seasonally adjusted $456.98 billion, data released from the Commerce Department showed. Total retail sales grew by 2.7% in June, when compared to the same month last year, and were up by 2.2% from May.

Retailers have seen their share of struggles lately as consumers flee from brick and mortar stores and do the bulk of their shopping online. CNBC's "Power Lunch" hosted a panel to discuss the retail sector on Friday.

"I think there's generally good news in today's retail sales. It's not strong everywhere but it's strong in building materials, strong in sporting goods [and] strong in areas such as restaurants," Hudson Bay CEO Gerald Storch said on "Power Lunch."

There is some imbalance in the June figures as apparel and electronics posted weaker numbers, but those are "cyclical things that happen all the time," Storch said.

CNBC anchor Tyler Mathisen questioned Storch and fellow guest Mark Cohen, the former CEO of Sears Canada, about the process of transforming the retail environment from "merely a shopping experience into something bigger."

"Well look the consumer never went away," Cohen said. "Apparel and accessories continue to be very tough and the trend line they've been struggling with, which is negative, is now in its third year."

In terms of changing the slope of that curve, Cohen believes it is difficult to see a "happy ending" this year as the influence of Amazon.com (AMZN) - Get Report and others like it continue to be pervasive.

"Consider the extraordinary sales that Amazon drove just a few days ago, and I would submit they're just getting started. Prime day was more of a primitive expression of promotion than something more highly evolved. And they're going to learn how to make it more and more compelling," Cohen said.

Cohen went on to discuss the "wonderful" experience of walking into a retail apparel or department store such as Saks Fifth Avenue calling it the "finest department store in the world."

"People don't dislike brick and mortar retail, they just like bad bricks and mortar retail," Cohen added.

(Amazon.com is held in the Growth Seeker portfolio. See all of its holdings with a free trial)

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