Research >> Economics
ICSC Chain Store Sales up 0.6% in Jul 24 Wk
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The ICSC-Goldman Sachs (ICSC-GS) chain store sales index for the week ending July 24 again rose on a week-over-week basis up 0.6%. On a year-over-year seasonally-adjusted basis, the pace of spending moderated to 3.8% in the latest week. Easy comparisons continue to lift sales — though not as much as the prior weekwhile the abnormally hot weather helped drove some customer traffic in regions. But the retail industry is in a transition period between summer clearance and back-to-school, which makes it difficult for retailers to leverage the hot-weather for sales.
Back-to-school will kick in during early August as a wave of states have their state sales tax holidays to help consumers as they head back to school. (Mississippi will be the first state with its sales tax holiday — July 30-31 — on clothing and footwear to usher in the back-to-school state tax holidays. A majority of states have their sales tax holidays beginning on or about August 6.) According to Weather Trends International (WTI) unseasonably hot weather lingered for its ninth consecutive week “with temperatures trending both much hotter than last year and above average for the nation as a whole with the month on pace to be the hottest in 115+ years.” Lingering hot weather may likely delay the launch of the consumers’ back-to-school spending. For the latest week, WTI also reported that the national temperature average was +4.2F warmer than last year and +2.5F above its long-term average. Meanwhile, gasoline prices have begun to edge up again. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration the average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline at the pump rose to $2.749 — up about three cents from the prior week and nearly 10% higher than the same week of the prior year.
Posted: July 27, 2010 Tuesday 07:45 AM