Piper Jaffray Says It's A Great Time To Be A Consumer!

Piper Jaffray has published a research report on Broadline Retail & Consumer Products, believing that now is a good time to be a consumer and that ad scans for Black Friday have shown that promotions will be higher than in 2009.

In the report, Piper Jaffray writes "Price discounts appear slightly more aggressive than in 2009. In comparing Black Friday pricing vs. pricing 2 weeks prior, we noticed pricing discounts were in the low 20% range vs. mid to high teens discounts in 2009. Overall, we are not surprised by these discounts given weakness in the TV category over the summer and fall timeframe. Given these price declines and consumer purchasing closer to need, we would expect sales within the TV category to improve compared to trends experienced this summer and fall. We are maintaining our OW Ratings on BBY, COST, OMX and remain Neutral on HD, HGG, LOW, SPLS and ODP. Based on our Black Friday ad scans we believe TVs will be slightly more promotional than 2009, while Appliance discounts will likely be even more compelling due to slowing sales last fall following the conclusion of the cash for appliances program. We also note that pre-Black Friday sales and special shopping events have become the norm as retailers try to capture as many sales as possible prior to Black Friday. Finally, we expect CE and Appliance sales growth to be +LSD y/y this holiday season."

Companies related to this report include:

Best Buy Co. (NYSE: BBY) $44.86
Costco Wholesale (NASDAQ: COST) $67.26
The Home Depot (NYSE: HD) $31.09
hhgregg, Inc. (NYSE: HGG) $24.03
Lowe's Companies (NYSE: LOW) $22.33
Office Depot, Inc. (NYSE: ODP) $4.64
OfficeMax, Inc. (NYSE: OMX) $16.79
Staples, Inc. (NASDAQ: SPLS) $21.49