ICSC: Same-store sales fall 1.5% last week

NEW YORK – Sales at U.S. retail stores open at least a year fell 1.5 percent last week from their level the week before, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC report for the seven days ended Oct. 20, Bloomberg News said.
The week-over-week decline – the sharpest since May, the ICSC said – erased the previous week’s 1.0-percent gain. It came even as retailers lowered prices on more items, seeking to counter higher gasoline and food prices and the nationwide housing slump. Macy’s Inc. pared prices on jewelry handbags and shoes last week, whileWal-Mart Stores Inc. cut prices on 15,000 items in preparation for the holidays.
Compared with a year ago, sales rose 2.2 percent last week, lagging the 2.5-percent increase in the week ended Oct. 13. “Customers have become too conditioned to buy on sale due to the excessive promotions run throughout the third quarter,” Ann Poole, an analyst at Nollenberger Capital Partners in New York, wrote in a note yesterday to investors.
For all of October, the ICSC and UBS now project year-over-year sales growth of 2.0 percent, a reduction from their previous estimate of 2.5 percent but still greater than September’s 1.7-percent sales growth. For the holiday shopping season, Bloomberg News said, the National Retail Federation predicts sales will rise about 4.0 percent, in the smallest increase of the past five years.
The International Council of Shopping Centers, a New York-based trade group, and investment bank UBS Securities LLC track same-store sales at about 60 chains that represent about 10 percent of U.S. retail sales. Additional information is available at www.icsc.org.

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