Research >> Economics
ICSC Chain Store Sales decreased 0.9% in Nov 19 Wk
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The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported that chain store sales fell for the 10th time in the last 17 weeks and the most since mid-September, declining 0.9% from the prior week, while growing 2.8% over the prior-year period during the week ending Nov 19th. Over the last week, the ICSC‐GS channel‐checking survey found that customer traffic was especially weak at discounters, but improved slightly at department stores. The pronounced discount store traffic weakness seems a likely result of consumers willing to wait for the big bargains on Black Friday and do their shopping at that time. ICSC‐GS consumer surveys suggest that two‐thirds of consumers have already started their holiday‐gift shopping (relatively steady with last year at this time) and 18% have half or more of their gift buying completed, which was a tad below last year. “With consumers poised to shop for bargains on Black Friday, consumers held off spending in the week leading up to that event,” said ICSC Chief Economist Michael Niemira, adding continued warm nationwide wasn’t supportive of seasonal apparel.
According to Weather Trends International (WTI), national temperatures over the past week ending Saturday were 2.8°F warmer than last year and 3.6°F warmer than its long‐term average. WTI reported that the “The U.S. was the warmest in seven years and the fourth warmest in at least 19 years for the third week of November. The first half of the week was milder than the second half as a storm system moving across the South Central states and onto the East Coast helped to bring temperatures down a few notches.” The U.S. Energy Information Administration said that gas prices dropped sharply by 6.8 cents to $3.368 on Nov 21st, up 16.5% from a year ago, which was the slowest year-on-year gain since Jan 31st. For all of November, ICSC Research projects industry sales to rise 3% to 3.5% excluding the impact of fuel and 3.5% to 4.0% with fuel.
Posted: November 22, 2011 Tuesday 07:45 AM