Research >> Economics
ICSC Chain Store Sales increased 0.3% in Nov 12 Wk
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The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported that chain store sales rose for the 3rd straight week but just the 7th time in the last 16 weeks, increasing 0.3% from the prior week, while growing 3.1% over the prior-year period during the week ending Nov 12th. Several factors seemingly helped drive sales over the last week, including cold weather in parts of the country and pre‐Thanksgiving promotions. However, customer traffic was uneven over the past week – improving for some retail segments, such as apparel stores and not for others, according to the ICSC‐GS channel‐checking survey. “The ICSC-Goldman Sachs weekly consumer tracking survey suggests that the percentage of holiday shopping that is more than 50 percent complete stood at 15 percent of the latest weekend, which was a tad higher than the same point last year and the highest since 2004, indicating that these early sale promotions are indeed driving overall sales,” added Niemira.
Weather Trends International noted that they are anticipating that “Black Friday will shape up to be much milder than last year and the warmest in five years and also much wetter than last year making this the wettest Black Friday in eight years. The wet weather will help to counter the effects of milder temperature trends, but could also be a negative for store traffic. Overall the weather impact will be less favorable” than last year. The U.S. Energy Information Administration said that gas prices rose by 1.2 cents to $3.436 on Nov 14th, but still sits 18.8% higher than a year ago. 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 15, 2011 Tuesday 07:45 AM