Ordering and grouping

The Times reported that January retail sales generally disappointed, and consumers showed a preference for discount retailers over department stores.

Taking the bar chart on the right, re-ordering by change in same-store sales, and grouping companies by type of retailer, we can present the data to match the text more closely.  The divergent performance between discount retailers and department stores is readily visible.

Reference: "Weak January dashed retailers' gift-card hopes", Feb 8 2008.

 

Comments

[Mike]

The new ordering does make the differences between store type clear. But, I'd put Kohl's in the "Discount" category.

[DaveG]

Hi,

while % change is all very well there are big differences in the total sales between these stores.

How about drawing the height of the bar so that the bara area for each % change is proportional to total sales?

Dave

[derek]

Dave, like this?

I've used the total change sales to match the total sales, as "sales per shop" wouldn't be the same. The legend is twisted round because this is an Excel area graph on its side, and I haven't troubled to fix it.