Chain Store Sales Higher Than Last Year

New York, NY, March 15, 2011 -- Chain-store sales for the week ended March 12 rose 3.1% year-over-year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs

Sales rose 0.1% on a week-over-week basis.

"Customer traffic was relatively steady over the last week," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist, observing that demand shifted towards drug stores, dollar stores and wholesale clubs.

"The latest week's consumer spending shift seemingly was more value driven and some of the discretionary segments, such as apparel and department stores were somewhat weaker."