September Retail Ratings: Consumers Identify More With Value, Less With Specific Retailers Best Buy, Wal-Mart, Lead Electronics Category; Kohl's Winning in Women's Clothing

COLUMBUS, OH -- (MARKET WIRE) -- 09/26/2003 -- When purchasing electronics, an increasing number of consumers are less concerned about where they shop than they are with finding value, according to the latest Retail Ratings Report from BIGresearch. In the September 2003 Retail Ratings Report, consumers were asked "where do you shop most often for electronics?" Of those surveyed, 22.2 percent said they had "no preference." That number is up from 13.7 percent in Sept. 2002. "The products in this category are very much the same between the retailers," said Gary Drenik, CEO of BIGresearch. "Consumers seem to be opening their Sunday circulars and picking the retailer with the best deals, not worrying about which retailer that might be." Issued monthly, BIGresearch's Retail Ratings Report is the only report in the $3.5 trillion retail landscape to provide a scorecard for ranking retailers based upon consumer preferences of adults age 18 and over. These rankings provide retailers, manufacturers and industry analysts with a tool to identify shifts in consumer preference before they impact a company's financial results. One aspect of that report is BIGresearch's Consumer Equity Indextm, which measures a retailer's growth or decline in Consumer Preference Share on a year over year basis. Consumer preference is determined by the percent of consumers who say they shop most often at a retailer for various merchandise lines. To calculate a retailer's CEI, the current year's Consumer Preference Share is divided by the previous year's. An index of 100 is flat and indicates no change in Consumer Preference Share. An index of 105 indicates 5 point growth, and an index of 95 indicates a 5 point decline. Consumers surveyed chose Best Buy, Wal-Mart and Circuit City as their top three electronics retailers, with 25.9, 19.1 and 8.7 percent respectively saying they shop most often there. On the flip side, those same three retailers lost the most consumer equity from Sept. 2002 to Sept. 2003. Among electronics retailers in the most recent survey, Circuit City's CEI fell 1 point for an index of 89.69 while Wal-Mart dropped 1.2 points to an index of 93.91. Best Buy's index was 94.45, down 1.5 points from September 2002. Click here to see the complete chart: http://www.bigresearch.com/big-retailratings-092603-e.pdf In the women's clothing segment, all consumers surveyed said they shopped most often at Wal-Mart, JC Penney and Kohl's (19.7, 6.2 and 4.1 percent respectively) while the overall 18+ Consumer Equity Index fell for both Wal-Mart and JC Penney, which may account for additional diversity among those earning more than $50,000 annually. The CEI in that group increased slightly for Macy's, Kohl's, Target and Old Navy. Click here for the complete findings: www.bigresearch.com/big-retailratings-092603-w.pdf "We're seeing the same thing here as we are in the electronics category," Drenik said. "In the competitive zero-sum retail environment, when someone grows it's usually at the expense of a competitor. Tracking the shifting consumer preferences among various retail segments is essential for identifying market changes, which can impact the bottom line of every retailer every quarter."

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BIGresearch is a market intelligence firm providing analysis of consumer behavior. Its syndicated Consumer Intentions and Actions survey monitors the pulse of more than 8,000 consumers each month to identify opportunities in a fragmented and changing marketplace.

BIGresearch’s methodology provides the most accurate consumer information in the industry at a confidence level of +/- 1%. Complimentary top line findings are available at www.bigresearch.com.