Weather's Effect on the Sales of a Department Store

ARECENT study1 was made of the effect of daily weather on the daily total store sales and the daily sales of three departments of Younker Bros., Inc., Des Moines, Iowa. The period covered in the study was the seven weeks before Easter, I940-48 inclusive. In this article only the relationship between the weather and the total sales of the store will be discussed. Many studies have been made of the effects of weather on various kinds of business activity in recent years. Studies have been made of weather's effect on gas consumption, electrical consumption, agricultural production, electrical power failures, etc. But little has been done on the subject of weather's effects on the retail sale of merchandise. Weather affects gas consumption mainly through the effect of temperature on people. In cities in which gas is used for household heating the relation between temperature and gas consumption is rather obvious. The relation between gas consumption and humidity and wind velocity is not so apparent but there probably is one. With respect to electrical consumption, cloudiness as well as other weather elements affect consumption. When the sky is overcast and the clouds are thick people will turn on their lights. Agricultural production is affected by many weather elements, but the time and amount of precipitation are probably the most important to most crops.