U.S. retail sales steady for 2nd week

NEW YORK – Sales at U.S. stores open at least one year were unchanged from the week before, for the second week in a row, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities said in their retail report for the week ended Oct. 5, according to Bloomberg News.
Compared with the same week a year ago, sales increased 2.1 percent, as warmer-than-usual weather continued to deter fall clothing purchases. “We saw the greatest activity in the clearance section of most retailers, as this was where shoppers could find old summer carryover merchandise,” Adrienne Tennant, an analyst at Friedman, Billings, Ramsey & Co., wrote in a report this week after two days of visiting U.S. shopping malls.
For all of September, same-store sales increased 2.0 percent from a year ago – the slowest pace in five months and only half the 4.0 percent year-over-year increase of September 2006 – increasing analyst fears about the shopping season ahead.
“Retailers need to be mindful going into the holiday shopping season of the economic conditions that are affecting consumer spending patterns – and, consequently, have to have a strong marketing plan in place to win back consumer demand,” Michael Niemira, the ICSC’s chief economist, told Bloomberg News.
The National Retail Federation last month predicted retail sales will rise 4.0 percent in November and December, the smallest gain since 2002.
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.