Calendar, Weather Warm Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Prospects

A calendar shift and potentially better weather should help sales this spring at Home Depot, Lowe's, Ace Hardware and other retailers who sell tools and gardening supplies.

Evan Gold vp of client services at Planalytics, which does weather forecasting for retailers, said the company is looking at the atmospheric trends and calling for a more seasonable March and April, good news for retail generally and particularly welcome by Home Depot, Lowe's and Ace who do the biggest chunk of their sales in the first half of spring. April is particularly critical for home centers and hardware stores as "that's their Christmas," Gold said.

March 2008 was the coldest in several years, he noted, and April temperatures were lower than normal as well, impacting communities across the United States. The combination was not good for retailers selling spring merchandise. Consumers often put off or forget about purchasing seasonal goods when the weather won't turn as expected. In releasing first quarter results last year, Ace CEO Ray Griffith said company results had been impacted by "a delay in the transition to spring weather in many parts of the country."

The problem was compounded by the calendar. Gold noted that Easter last year was the earliest in 95 years, falling on March 23. Easter is THE big promotional opportunity for home centers and hardware stores, but, when it fell, people were just not ready to garden, do exterior home repairs or other attempt related tasks. The calendar and weather robbed April of its sales punch last annum, but it should return this year. Maybe that can't roll back all the effects of the recession, but it could mitigate.