Press Release:
Weekly retail sales down from last week but higher than the same week last year.
NEW YORK, December 7, 2010 – With the 2010 holiday season now underway, normal holiday spending patterns are taking hold as consumers recovered from their Black Friday shopping and took a break this past week. As a result, for the week ending December 4, weekly retail sales declined by 2.1 percent, according to the ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index. In addition, retail sales, on a year-over-year basis, slowed by 2.6 percent after regaining its momentum last week.
“The post-Black Friday lull once again dominated the spending pattern over the past week after an impressive and strong Black Friday performance,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC director of research and chief economist. “This early-December slowdown has become quite common in recent years, but since consumers continue to report that their holiday-gift shopping completion rate is far lower than in recent years, sales should accelerate in the coming weeks,” Niemira added.
For December, ICSC Research anticipates the month will post a good performance with a year-over-year comparable-store sales growth increase of between 3.0 to 3.5 percent, industry-wide.
