Chain Store Sales Increase Last Week

New York, NY, Jan. 26, 2011 -- U.S. chain-store sales rose 2.8% last week compared to last year, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers  and Goldman Sachs.

For the week ending Jan. 22, weekly retail sales declined by 1.2% on a comparable store basis.

"Adverse weather in the East once again curbed discretionary spending, negatively impacting sales," said Michael Niemira, ICSC director of research and chief economist.

"However, January is a low volume month for sales and although it is shaping up to be softer than recent trends because of the impact of weather on discretionary sales, there is little fundamental significance to read into that weakness," Niemira added.

ICSC lowered its expected chain-store sales increase for the month of January to 2% from 2.5%.