Clothing sales down in USA

After showing signs of improvement in early fall, sales of clothing and luxury goods weakened a bit the first half of November, compared with a year ago, when stores pulled shoppers in with massive discounts, figures released Tuesday show. 'It was a little bit softer,' said Michael McNamara, vice president at SpendingPulse, referring to the weak apparel and luxury figures. He cautioned against comparing the first half of November this year and last very closely: SpendingPulse found that sales of women's clothing fell 3.3 per cent; sales at department stores fell 7.1 per cent; footwear sales slipped 1. 5 per cent; and men's apparel sales dipped 1 per cent for the period from Nov. 1 to Nov. 14. Overall apparel sales rose in October after many months of declines starting in July 2008. Luxury sales, which rose in September and October, had shown declines since August 2008.