New York, NY, October 19--Chain store retail sales slowed in the latest week, with discount stores seeing sales soften a bit, a report said on Tuesday.
Sales fell 0.2 percent in the week ended October 16, compared with a 0.5 percent rise in the previous week, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS said in a joint report. Compared with the same week a year ago, sales remained strong at 3.4 percent after the 3.7 percent rise the preceding week.
"There appears to be some sector rotation over the last week with department stores performing relatively better with a pickup in customer traffic, while discounters saw sales soften a bit," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.
"Despite the slight decrease, the overall sales pace remains strong. For the month of October, we continue to expect sales to grow by 3.0 percent to 4.0 percent on a year-over-year basis," Niemira added.
The ICSC-UBS Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot is compiled from a group of major discount, department and chain stores across the country that report their weekly results.
