Snippets of Woolworths first quarter sales

Hmmm.....how did it come to this.

Woolworths first quarter sales were pretty bleak.  Or maybe "pretty bleak" is a bit too kind.  As I type these words its share price is down over 9% and sliding fast.  Its most recent share price low was $24.11 on September 21st.  A solid rally in the last four to five weeks has all been erased.

Snippet one

Woolworths same store sales (food and liquor) down 1%
Coles same store sales (food and liquor) up 3.6%

Snippet two

Big W same store sales down 8.1%
Kmart same store sales up 8.6%
Target same store sales up 3.2%

James Thomson writing for the Financial Review summed it all up pretty well by saying "Forget restoring Woolies to its former glory for a while - the new boss's big job is just going to be restoring some positive momentum."

Coles and Aldi are also unlikely to be easing up any competitive pressure.  As the quarterly sales from Wesfarmers showed all their retail brands including Target have positive sales growth and a little bit of the momentum Woolworths is missing.