New York, July 5, 2006--Weekly chain store sales declined by 0.7 percent for the week ending July 1, an industry group reported Wednesday.
The International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC also said that, on a year-over-year basis, overall sales demand also softened to 2.9 percent from the same week last year, its slowest gain since April 1.
"Customer traffic slowed this past week, which resulted in this week's sales decline," said Michael P. Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.
"Taking into account the overall monthly performance of chain stores, we expect comparable-store sales for the nation's chain stores to increase by 2.5 percent to 3 percent due to the 'tough' comparison against June 2005," Niemira added.
