WHEN the going gets tough, the tough go shopping. And if you have not yet gone shopping for retail shares, it may well be too late.

Value investors have been punting retail stocks since the start of the second quarter of this year. Their reasoning was that things could only get better after bad news slashed share prices. Profit warnings, tax problems, massive debtors' books, trouble offshore, the high fuel price, competitive pressures, margin squeezes, spending on cellphones, the lottery the list goes on. Shopkeepers were insomniacs while the platinum miners snoozed like babies.

Retail shares have been slow to respond to easing monetary policy. At the bottom end of the market, which is dominated by microlending activity, monetary easing makes its effect felt only with a lag. Hence Pepkor battled to hang on to its gains this year but put in a spurt yesterday.

For wealthier people with mortgages, the effect of an interest-rate cut on their wallets is immediate and the extra money spent at the mall.

Fashion victims are the first to fall, so some retail shares have already had a good run. Truworths shares have soared from about 410c earlier this year to a peak of 600c, and were trading at 580c yesterday.

The clothing retailer has protected its brands well, unlike Edgars Consolidated, which analysts say is not focused enough in SA's highly segmented market. Yet Edcon has also made rapid strides from R19 in midApril to flirt with R30. Likewise, Foschini has also had a pretty impressive run from its bottom.

Other counters, though, are too burdened with big debtors' books and uncertainty to overcome investors' scepticism. Profurn is an all-too-familiar example.

Even if another interest-rate cut materialises this week which is unlikely some retail counters will remain in the doldrums. Their problems are structural, and related to debt, rather than cyclical.

The trick is to spot the difference.