Retail earnings are on track to fall 6.8% year over year in the first quarter of 2017 — a 7% decline not including retail giant Wal-Mart, according to a Retail Metrics report emailed to Retail Dive.
The results are even worse considering they’re against an “easy” comparison of a 2.1% rise in the first quarter of last year: “It has been a cruel [quarter] for the industry,” Retail Metrics president Ken Perkins wrote in the report.
