We've noted that August 2024 was a stronger than July for many retailers, and that’s especially true for apparel retail. Anthropologie’s August pace is consistent with the three-month trend, whereas Aritzia was much stronger in August (+1,200 basis points) than its three-month trend. At this week's Goldman Sachs Annual Global Retailing Conference, Aritzia’s management characterized its positioning as one of strength in the U.S. and indicated a strong second half of 2024, thus aligning with Placer traffic.
Urban Outfitters Co-President and Chief Operating Officer Frank Conforti was also more positive saying, “I think the saying is what a difference a day can make. So, it's been two weeks since our last public update. And what I can tell you is that we're certainly feeling better about the environment right now. I think we're still feeling pretty consistent with what we're expecting in the quarter from a sales perspective...but the difference is that we don't think right now we're going to need to be as promotional as we were worried about when we talked on the call two weeks ago. The environment seems to have improved. The consumer feels like they're in a good place. Certainly, a lot of our peers are doing well. So we're less concerned than we were two weeks ago.” Placer also shows improvement for peer Altar’D State where August was +900 bps stronger than the three-month trend. Given the improvement at all three brands, this is an improvement from the macro vs. from the “fashion”.
