ICSC: Same-store sales steady last week

NEW YORK – Sales at U.S. retail stores open at least one year were unchanged last week, after falling 1.0 percent the week before, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities report for the week ended Sept. 29, Bloomberg News said. “Abnormally warm weather” curbed demand for fall apparel, the report said.
Last week “was the eigth straight week to trend warmer than a year ago,” with average temperatures nationwide running 3.9 degrees above normal and 4.8 degrees warmer than last year, Weather Trends International told ICSC-UBS analysts. “[And] the 5-week fiscal retail month of September is estimated to rank the fifth warmest and 12th driest in 113 years. This is a wholesale change from last year, when the month was the 31st coldest and 37th wettest.”
Compared with the same week of 2006, sales rose 2.7 percent last week, improving from their 2.4-percent year-over-year gain in the week ended Sept. 22. For all of September, sales were “a tad better than expected,” rising 2.0 to 2.5 percent above year-ago levels. Same-store sales were up 2.9 percent in August from the same month last year, the ICSC-UBS survey found.
“Our money this year is on the retailers to begin material markdowns in the next few weeks,” as they try to clear space for holiday merchandise, Eric Beder, an analyst at Brean Murray Carret & Co., said in a research note yesterday, according to Bloomberg News.
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.