A weekly measure of sales at chain stores, discounters, and department stores. It is a less consistent indicator of retail sales than the weekly ICSC index. It is also calculated differently than other indicators. For instance, figures for the first week of the month are compared with the average for the entire previous month. When two weeks are available, then these are compared with the average for the previous month, and so on. It might be more useful to compare year-over-year figures since these are indeed compared to the comparable week a year ago. This index is correlated with the general merchandise portion of retail sales covering only about 10 percent of total retail sales. Why Investors Care
| Released on 12/11/07 For wk 12/8 2007 | ||||||||
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Highlights
Weekly chain store reports, citing a calendar accounting distortion at many retailers, are offering little on the status of holiday shopping. Redbook reports a very soft 1.6 percent year-on-year same-store sales rate in the Dec. 8 week, down 4 tenths from the prior week's pace and the lowest rate in more than two months. ICSC-UBS also shows a soft rate, 2.3 percent rate. The December period at many of the chains Redbook follows have six fewer pre-Christmas shopping days than last year, a factor it said that pulled sales into November at the expense of December. Still the report said sales in the latest week were given a boost by this year's earlier Hanukkah. Attention now turns to any description of consumer spending offered in this afternoon's FOMC statement followed by the November retail trade report on Thursday.
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