NEW YORK – Sales at U.S. retail stores open at least one year fell 1 percent last week, after falling 1.1 percent the week before, the International Council of Shopping Centers Inc. and UBS Securities LLC said in a report today, according to Bloomberg News.
The report blamed higher gasoline prices and the worst housing slump in 16 years for slowing consumer spending.
Compared with the same week of 2006, sales rose 2.4 percent in the week ended Sept. 22, after rising 2.9 percent the week ended Sept. 15, the ICSC-UBS report said.
The groups today lowered their forecast for all of September, predicting year-over-year sales growth of as little as 2 percent rather than the 2.5 percent of their previous prediction. No. 2 U.S. retailer Target Co. yesterday lowered its September sales projections, citing a decline in customer visits, while home-improvement giant Lowe’s Corp. said its earnings this year may miss the company’s previous forecast.
“Consumers have been whipped back and forth like crazy,” Kurt Barnard, president of Retail Forecasting LLC in New Jersey, told Bloomberg News. “Money has become a commodity to be treasured.”
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.
