Chain Store Sales Up Last Week vs. 2010

New York, NY, Feb. 2, 2011 -- U.S. chain-store sales rose 1.6% last week, compared with one year ago and according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs.

The increase reflected the continued trend of year on year comparable store sales increases, although on a week to week comparison, ICSC noted that sales slipped 1%, due partly to bad weather.
 
ICSC trimmed its January prediction for chain-store sales increases half one point to 1.5% to 2%, but reaffirmed its 2011  sales forecast for the industry of 3% to 3.5%.