Research >> Economics
ICSC Chain Store Sales increased 0.1% in Mar 12 Wk
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Weekly retail sales for March continue to roar like a lion as retail sales increased for the second consecutive week. Overall, for the week ending March 12, weekly retail sales rose by 0.1 percent, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index. In addition, on a year-over-year basis, retail sales continued to increase and grew to 3.1 percent.
"Customer traffic was relatively steady over the last weekbased on the ICSC-Goldman Sachs consumer tracking surveys--but compositionally demand shifted towards drug stores, dollar stores and wholesale clubs," said Michael Niemira, ICSC vice president of research and chief economist. "The latest week's consumer spending shift seemingly was more value driven and some of the discretionary segments, such as apparel and department stores were somewhat weaker," Niemira added.
For March, ICSC Research expects comparable-store sales will be flat to up to 2.0 percent as the Easter shift (April 4, 2010 verse April 24, 2011) will cause a "big drag" on sales despite the widespread improvements in labor markets, economic conditions and the reduction in the payroll tax -- which collectively are more than offsetting the potentially negative drag from high fuel and rising food prices on the consumers' market basket.
Posted: March 15, 2011 Tuesday 07:45 AM