Research >> Economics
ICSC Chain Store Sales were flat% in Jun 16 Wk
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The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported that chain store sales were flat from the prior week, while increasing 3.6% over the prior-year period during the week ending June 16th, the strongest performance in 4 weeks. “With a fair amount of economic uncertainty in the U.S. and globally, consumer sales have been more restrained,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC’s vice president of research and chief economist. “The good news, however, is that gasoline prices at the pump have receded significantly in the past 11 weeks, which should help to replenish some discretionary purchasing power in the coming weeks,” Niemira added. According to the ICSC‐GS consumer tracking survey mall traffic improved over the past week relative to last year, but outlet business weakened. Apparel stores, grocery stores, wholesale clubs and dollar stores were among the segments showing year‐over‐year improvement during the past week.
According to Weather Trends International (WTI),the national average temperature over the past week ending Saturday was a marginal 0.5°F warmer than last year and 1.5°F warmer than its long‐term average. WTI noted that, “warmer trends in the northern half of the United States slightly outweighed cooler trends in the South as temperatures for the U.S., as a whole, were slightly warmer than last year.” Meanwhile, fuel prices had their 11th straight weekly pullback. The US Energy Information Administration said gas prices fell another 3.9 cents compared with the prior week to $3.533 on June 18th and, cumulatively, by 40.8 cents over the past 11 weeks. Compared with the same week of the prior year, the price of regular‐grade gasoline fell by 3.3% in the latest week, which was its 9th straight year-over-year drop. For all of June, ICSC Research forecasts a comparable‐store sales gain of about 2% (including drug stores, which will be reported later due to the calendar). Excluding drug stores, sales are expected to increase by around 3.5% to 4.0%.
Posted: June 19, 2012 Tuesday 07:45 AM