New York, NY, September 19, 2006--Chain store retail sales slipped in the latest week while overall demand compared with one year ago remained robust, a retail report said on Tuesday.
Sales fell 1.1 percent in the week ended Sept 16, compared with a 0.3 percent drop the previous week, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS said in a joint report. The report attributed the decline to observance of the September 11 attacks.
Compared with the same week a year ago, sales rose a strong 4.9 percent following a sharp 3.8 percent year-ago gain the preceding week.
"Despite the strong year-over-year gain, consumer spending seemingly continued to show a 'September 11 observance effect' on sales that resulted in a low sales volume week with especially low volume on September 11th," said Michael P. Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.
"In addition to that new seasonal pattern, demand has been soft in the week of September 11 for the last five years and most likely is temporary. For the fiscal month of September, ICSC expects retail chain store sales to increase by around 3.5 percent for the month," Niemira added.
