The Daily, Monday, December 23, 2002. Department store sales and stocks

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Department store sales and stocks

In November, consumers continued their spending in department stores, pushing sales to $1.77 billion (seasonally adjusted), up 0.4% from October. This growth followed the much larger increase in October (+3.2%).

Following growth of 5.0% in January, department store sales have maintained their level. However, month-to-month sales have been relatively volatile, fluctuating around an average of $1.76 billion. Before that, sales had been moving upward since the spring of 2000.

November department store sales, unadjusted for seasonality, were 6.8% higher than in November 2001. Sales advanced in all provinces. The largest year-over-year increase was observed in New Brunswick (+13.2%). Quebec and the Prairie provinces also posted sales gains higher or equal to the national growth rate. The remaining provinces posted year-over-year increases below that rate.

Unadjusted for seasonality, cumulative department store sales evolved differently in large urban centres than they did in other areas. The survey's definition of large urban centres includes the census metropolitan areas of Halifax-Darthmouth, Québec, Montréal, Ottawa-Gatineau, Toronto, Hamilton, Winnipeg, Edmonton, Calgary and Vancouver. Sales grew almost two times faster in other areas than in large urban centres in the first 11 months of 2002, compared with the same period of 2001. Year-to-date department store sales jumped 9.7 % in other areas and 4.9 % in the large urban centres. The strong sales growth in other areas can be explained, at least partly, by more new stores opening in these areas. Over the same period, the average number of stores rose from 400 to 408 in other areas and from 331 to 333 in the large urban centres.

Department store sales including concessions

Nov. 2001

Nov. 2002

Nov. 2001 to Nov. 2002

Jan. to Nov. 2002

Jan.-Nov. 2001 to Jan.-Nov. 2002

Unadjusted

$ millions

% change

$ millions

% change

Canada

2,056.2

2,195.1

6.8

17,879.3

7.2

Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island¹

57.0

59.4

4.2

430.9

11.2

Nova Scotia

76.6

80.2

4.7

553.7

12.3

New Brunswick

56.0

63.4

13.2

416.6

7.6

Quebec

354.2

388.8

9.8

3,337.7

10.3

Ontario

882.7

934.9

5.9

7,526.5

5.9

Manitoba

80.1

85.5

6.8

706.3

4.8

Saskatchewan

68.0

72.9

7.1

629.5

7.2

Alberta

247.4

266.5

7.7

2,220.2

8.3

British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut¹

234.3

243.6

4.0

2,058.0

4.1

¹	For reasons of confidentiality, data for Newfoundland and Labrador and Prince Edward Island are combined, as are data for British Columbia, Yukon, Northwest Territories and Nunavut.

Available on CANSIM: table 076-0005.

Information on methods and data quality available in the Integrated Meta Data Base: survey number 2408.

For general information or to order data, contact Client Services (1-877-421-3067; 613-951-3549; retailinfo@statcan.gc.ca). To enquire about the concepts, methods or data quality of this release, contact Clérance Kimanyi (613-951-6363; clerance.kimanyi@statcan.gc.ca), Distributive Trades Division.