MAJOR RETAILERS' "NOT-SO-GOOD" SALES MONTH "NOT-SO-BAD"

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- In the midst of a not-so-good retail season, one major chain is whipping through the tough times.

Wal-Mart Stores Inc., headquartered at Bentonville, Ark., was again the stand-out performer among the largest retailers in January, recording increases of 11 percent in same-store sales and 36 percent in total sales to $2.49 billion.

Most major retailers announced a month of "soft sales" in January nationally.

Wal-Mart passed Kmart in November to snag the distinction of being the nation's number two retailer behind Sears and is still clinging to that runner-up spot. For the fiscal year ending Jan. 31, Wal-Mart had sales of more than $25.8 billion.

In January, it was Sears, Wal-Mart and Kmart, in that order in sales.

Sears led the group with $2.57 billion in sales, but the Chicago-based chain still experienced a 3.2 percent drop in same-store sales compared with January 1990. Same-store sales refers to sales at stores that have been open at least a year.

Kmart Corp., headquartered in Troy, Mich., reported an 8.9 percent increase in total sales, to $2.41 billion, and a 3.8 percent increase in same-store sales.

JCPenney Stores, headquartered in Dallas, Texas, reported a same-store sales decline of 3 percent and a total sales drop of 1.4 percents, to $982 million in January.

Another major retailer, New York-based Woolworth Corp., had a marginal 0.5 percent increase in domestic same-store sales for January, while total domestic sales increased 6.1 percent to $381 million.

The January figures follow several months of declining sales nationally and a Christmas season that some analysts said was the worst in a decade.

There are some exceptions locally to the "gloom and doom" economic situations.

"We had an exceptionally strong month in January," said Terry Godwin, manager of the Cape Girardeau Wal-Mart operation. "In fact, we've had good sales since the earthquake date passed in early December of last year.

"There was a two-week period the week after Christmas and the first week of January when we had a lull," he said. "Those were days of extreme cold, ice and dreary, sunless conditions."

As the fiscal year neared an end, Wal-Mart also announced a new operation for Cape Girardeau a 168,000-square-foot Supercenter to be located on West Route K just off Interstate 55.

Construction of the new facility will get under way this summer, with a project opening for early 1992.

John McClain, manager of the local Kmart store, said January was better here than a year ago.

"The extreme cold following Christmas and into the first week of January had an effect on sales," he said. "And, about the time the weather changed for the better, then the Mideast situation heated up."

"But, sales here in January were not that bad," he added.

Harry Rediger, manager of JCPenney, was pleased with January sales.

"Our sales were up over January of 1990," he said. "But we ran more sales events in January of this year. We sold off a lot more goods this year than a year ago."

Rediger added that some of the dollars realized in January would normally have come in December if the weather had been better.

"With nice weather after the first few days of January, we've had good traffic and sales," he said. "We're a few percentage points up in sales for the month."

Rediger added that early February sales were running ahead of 1990 sales.