This month may be the coldest February in the United States in 28 years, and it’s dampened consumer spending, according to a report by the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC.
For all of February, revenue at stores open at least a year will be up by 3 percent from a year earlier, the report predicted.
Retailers were particularly affected by the storm on Feb. 14 that blanketed part of the country with ice, snow and frigid temperatures.
“We expect recovery as weather improves,” Michelle Tan, a New York-based UBS analyst, wrote in a note to clients.
Sales in the week ended Feb. 17 fell 0.1 percent from the previous seven days.
“The weather has caused slower traffic,” ICSC chief economist Michael Niemira said in an interview. “Consumer demand is still holding up.”
Johnson Redbook Research said separately that storms had kept shoppers home in the Northeast and Midwest, but discount stores such as Target Corp. benefited from last-minute Valentine’s Day flower and candy purchases as well as sales of food, road salt and snow shovels.