Research >> Economics
ICSC Chain Store Sales dropped by 1.7% in Mar 23 Wk
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The ICSC‐Goldman Sachs (ICSC‐GS) chain store sales index for the week ending March 23, 2013 dropped by 1.7% from its prior week's level and its year‐over‐year pace slowed to 1.0%. The year‐over‐year pace was the slowest since February 27, 2010 (+0.7%). An abnormally cold bout of weather curbed consumer demand for spring goods—especially apparel. According to the ICSC‐GS consumer tracking survey, retail business weakened over the past week at department stores, apparel‐specialty stores, discounters and wholesale clubs. However, business was stronger at drug, dollar, office and furniture stores.
According to Weather Trends International, Inc. (WTI), the U.S. average nationwide temperature during this past week ending March 23 was a hefty 15.2°F colder than last year and 4.5°F below its long‐term trend. WTI observed that “spring officially arrived on Wednesday, but that was hard to imagine as temperatures were drastically colder than last year in much of the eastern two‐thirds of the nation ... Temperatures were 20‐to‐40°F colder than last year … across the East. Temperatures for the United States, as a whole, were the third coldest in more than 22 years for the third week of the retail March. Adding insult to injury, it was . . . the snowiest third week of March in nine years.”
On the positive side for consumers’ wallets, the average price of a gallon of regular‐grade gasoline receded for the fourth‐consecutive week. According to the U.S. Energy Information Administration, the U.S. average price of a gallon of regular grade gasoline was $3.680 on March 25, 2013‐‐down 1.6 cents from the prior week or 10.4 cents over the past four weeks, after a hefty 53 cents cumulative gain over the prior ten weeks.
Posted: March 26, 2013 Tuesday 07:45 AM