Why Dillard’s Second Quarter Is A Hopeful Sign For All Retailers

The first retail company to report sales and earnings for the second quarter of 2020 is Dillard’s. The company reported, for the 13 weeks ended August 1, 2020, a net loss of $8.6 Million or ($0.37) a share compared to a net loss of $40.7 Million or ($1.59) a share in the prior year. (In 2019, the company had very heavy mark-downs that caused an erosion of gross margin.) The company reminded us that in that year Dillard’s had a pretax gain of $4.9 Million (or $3.8 Million after tax) or $0.15 a share. This gain was related to the sale of a store property. The company did not report comparable store sales for the second quarter due to the temporary closure of brick and mortar locations caused by the COVID-19 pandemic. That ended on June 2, 2020 when all stores were reopened. Most stores (except one) are now operating on a reduced store hour basis. However, sales since reopening have run at about 72% of prior year’s same day levels according to management. Read more at Forbes.