Rapaport News

RAPAPORT... U.S. chain-store sales rose 2.2 percent year on year for the week that ended on October 26, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs. However, on a week-to-week basis, comparable-store sales slipped 0.4 percent.

“A blast of wintery-type weather and, most likely, Halloween-related buying helped lift seasonal goods and drive traffic across most of the industry," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's vice president of research and chief economist. “Over the last month, sales have been very erratic with lots of external impacts from the ripple effects of the government shutdown to worry about the economy affecting the pace of demand.”

ICSC Research anticipates that October's  chain-store sales will reflect an increase of 3 percent to 4 percent.  The weekly chain-store sales snapshot is produced by ICSC and Goldman Sachs to measure U.S. nominal same-store, or comparable-store, sales while excluding restaurant and vehicle demand. The weekly sales index is presented on an adjusted basis to account for normal seasonal and other data anomalies.