Chain Store Sales Down 0.9% Last Week

New York, NY, August 14, 2007–Chain store sales fell 0.9% during the week of Aug. 4-11, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers-UBS Retail Chain Store Sales Index.

Sales also fell 0.3% decrease in the prior week.

“Battered by a tornado in Brooklyn, N.Y., heavy rainfall from Chicago through New England and the hottest early August week in six years, according to Weather Trends International, sales withered during the week, despite state sales tax free days that drove sales in those ten states and at the District of Columbia,” said Mike Niemira, chief economist at ICSC who compiles the index.

For the month, ICSC Research expects industry chain store sales to increase in the four-week fiscal month of August by 2.0% to 2.5% on a year-over-year comparable store basis.

Chain store sales were up 2.3% verses the year-ago period.