United States retailers closed out January riding out a fourth consecutive month of declining numbers and hard-bitten earnings reports. According to the International Council of Shopping Centers, sales for the overall retail industry dropped 1.9 percent compared with January 2008, and another report, from Retail Metrics, put the number at 1.8 percent, adding that without retail behemoth Wal-Mart Stores, it would have been 5.6 percent. Most other industry reports also cited between 1.8 and 1.9 percent drops.





Big-box and fast-growth technology retailers are certainly not immune, and as the following slides illustrate, even Wal-Mart isn't against qualifying its continued good news.