WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is are excerpts from the
commentary from the ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot
released Tuesday:
Retailers finally got something to cheer about as cooler
temperatures nationwide drove consumers indoors and motivated those to
shop this past week. As a result, for the week ending June 2, weekly
retail sales turned positive and rose by 0.4%, according to the
International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs
Weekly Chain Store Sales Index. On a year-over-year basis, some
weakness remains as retail sales slowed slightly to 2.8% over last year.
“Despite a cooler national temperature over the past week, sales
improved modestly after a five-week contraction as customer traffic at
apparel store traffic improved sharply, but weakened appreciably at
discounters, according to the ICSC-GS consumer tracking survey,” said
Michael Niemira, ICSC vice president of research and chief economist.
“As we move throughout the month, we expect overall performance to
continue to be very uneven from week to week and by retail segment,”
Niemira added.
Looking ahead to June, ICSC Research forecasts a gain in industry
comparable-store sales, excluding drug stores, of about 3.5% to 4.0%
following the May rise of 4.0%. Including drug store sales, the
industry tally is likely to be about two percentage points weaker.
** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **
[TOPICS: MAUDT$,MAUDS$,M$U$$$]