Chain Store Sales Surged Last Week

New York, NY, Dec. 14, 2010 -- U.S. chain-store sales last week rose 3.1%, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs.

Overall, for the week ending Dec. 11, sales rose by 0.8% compared with the previous week.

“Sales rose both on a year-over-year and on a week-over-week basis as consumers stepped up their holiday gift purchases with the ICSC-Goldman Sachs Consumer Tracking Survey showing that the average holiday-gift completion rate rose from 40.1% last week up to 56.6% this week,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC director of research and chief economist. 

“That is a rather impressive increase over the past two weeks, but consumers are still a tad below last year’s pace and noticeably below two-years ago, which suggests a stronger late-buying rush over the next two weeks,” Niemira added.

ICSC predicts that December comparable store sales at the chains will increase between  3.5% and 4%.