Research >> Economics
ICSC Chain Store Sales up 0.1% in Mar 20 Wk
With the official arrival of spring on Saturday consumers were motivated to shop giving retailers a bounce back from last week’s slight sales decline. Overall, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers, Inc. (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) index, weekly retail sales for the week ending March 20 improved by 0.1 percent. In addition, on a year-over-year basis, sales improved and grew by 3.7 percent – the strongest since April 7, 2007 (+4.0%).
“Last week’s mild weather on both coasts gave consumers ’spring fever’ and a reason to release some more of their pent-up demand which has been an underlying force over the last few weeks,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC director of research and chief economist. “With the earlier Easter just two weeks away the current uptick for the month of March should continue and as a result ICSC Research expects March sales will increase by 3.0 to 3.5 percent,” Niemira added.
Posted: March 23, 2010 Tuesday 07:45 AM