WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is the commentary from the
ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot released Tuesday:
Retailers once again saw their sales dip as consumers pulled back a
bit on their discretionary spending this past week. Overall for the week
ending May 22, weekly sales slipped by 0.8 percent, according to the
ICSC-Goldman Sachs weekly sales index. On a year-over-year basis sales
were also affected and slowed to 1.3 percent.
“Sales continued to soften over the latest week as mixed regional
influences from weather combined with uneven traffic and some softer
spending by consumers led to the decline,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC
director of research and chief economist. “Given the last two weeks
sales are now tracking about 2.0 to 2.5 percent for the month which is
somewhat below ICSC Research’s earlier expectation of approximately 3.5
percent,” Niemira added.
In observance of Memorial Day, the ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain
Store Sales Snapshot will be released on Wednesday, June 2, 2010.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **
[TOPICS: MAUDT$,MAUDS$,M$U$$$]