Comparison of Christmas holiday selling period TY vs. LY

We spent some time reviewing Christmas comps and here are some data points and observations.  

Sample Group

• 38 vendors in the sample selling various product departments including paint, tools, cleaning, lawn and garden, storage, electrical, and lumber. 
• Sales numbers for Home Depot, Sears, Wal-Mart, Lowes, Target, CVS.

Results

• All vendors as a group were up 1.40% year over year on a unit basis, and up 2.75% on a dollar basis.
• The variability in the sample is high when comparing % change YoY across vendors and retailers.  The sample ranges from (40%) to 147% with the median being (0.21%) and the average being 11.4%.  
• Five vendors saw a negative unit comp and a positive dollar comp.  This is interesting because it suggests a higher average dollar value per sale.

Overall Christmas 2012 finished well for most vendors when comparing against last year when you take into account that five of the negative unit comps were offset by positive dollar comps.