
Macy's, Penney Have Existential Challenges, Cramer Says
Given the huge influence Amazon (AMZN) - Get Report has on consumer spending, is the monthly retail sales number from the Commerce Department even relative these days?
Jim Cramer doesn't think so.
"The retail sales number is a number that shouldn't be used. I know its been very incorrect for a long time," Cramer told TheStreet on Tuesday.
Amazon is "such a huge part of retail -- that retail sales (figure) doesn't mean as much to me as it did even a year ago," Cramer said. "It certainly doesn't want to make me go buy somebody whose earnings may be falling off."
"I do wonder (about) -- you know the Macy's (M) - Get Report , the Kohl's (KSS) - Get Report , the J.C. Penney's (JCP) - Get Report -- those are what I call 'existential challenges,'" he added. "They are companies fighting to figure out what their raison d'etre is. It's not the case with Amazon; it's not the case with the dollar stores."
Retail sales in May climbed 0.5%, slightly higher than estimates of a 0.3% increase, though significantly lower than the 1.3% growth in April. So-called core retail sales, which strip out the effects of autos and gas, rose 0.3%.
E-commerce spending in May rose 1.3% from April and 12.2% over the year-earlier period. Discretionary spending at restaurants, sporting goods, hobby and book and music stocks as well as apparel all had decent gains over April. Yet spending at furniture and home furnishing and building material and garden equipment stores declined last month.
Shares of Amazon rose 0.2 on Tuesday. Shares of Macy's were down 0.8%, Kohl's dropped 2.2% and J.C. Penney slipped 0.1%.









