Sales at some of the nation’s best-known retailers fell by double digits in September, highlighting the rapid deterioration of the economy and raising fresh questions about how many of those chains can survive.
Retail analysts and executives said they had not seen such a rapid slowdown in consumer spending since the nation’s last deep recession, in the early 1980s. Retail executives, though braced for bad news, were stunned at the magnitude of the drop-offs reported on Wednesday. Retailers high and low — like Nordstrom, J. C. Penney and Kohl’s — lowered their earnings projections.
