Mergers defined retail in 2005

In a year-in-review piece, AP detailed the many mergers and acquisitions in retailing this past year:

• Sears/Kmart leads the list, of course
• Federated/May isn't far behind
• Bon-Ton took over Saks' midwestern stores
• Belk bought the southern (McRae and Profitts) stores from Saks
• And Neiman-Marcus was bought by private-equity investors (Texas Pacific and Warburg Pincus)

Not on the list, Albertson's put itself up for sale, but couldn't find a taker, and it looks like Hudson's Bay will soon be sold.

The article says that "... the $30 billion merger between Federated and May will have the most impact on shoppers ..."and adds, further on, "given its increased clout, Federated is expected to redefine overall retailing."

Sounds like somebody at AP has been reading too many Federated press releases. Federated is going to redefine retailing? Not likely -- its "increased clout" leaves it still just a bit short of Wal-Mart in the clout department (a couple hundred billion short). And perhaps they ought to take notice of the stats they gloss over in the article: same-store retail sales overall are up 3.9% in 2005, but department stores are up barely half that, only 2.2%.

Market share? Who worries about that, right?