WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is the commentary from the
ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot released
Tuesday:
Halloween was a driver of sales this past week as retail sales rose
0.7% from the prior week according to the International Council of
Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs (GS) Weekly Chain Store Sales
Index. On a year over-year basis sales picked back up, increasing by
3.0%.
“Halloween lifted sales, especially at discounters and drug stores,
and the weekly gain was the strongest since the week ending September
10, 2011,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC vice president of research and
chief economist. “Overall customer traffic improved for the week,
however storms and power outages in the Northeast hurt regional demand
across most stores.”
Looking ahead, ICSC Research anticipates that the October industry
sales pace will likely continue to be relatively consistent, though on
the low-end of recent trends, and increase by approximately 4.5% as
weather impacts seemingly modestly hurt sales for the month overall.
ICSC will report chain-store sales for the month of October on Thursday,
November 3.
** Market News International Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **
[TOPICS: MAUDT$,MAUDS$,M$U$$$]