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 5/20/08 For wk 5/17 2008 | ||||||||
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Highlights
Retail sales are steady and soft according to Redbook's 1.6 percent year-on-year same-store sales rate for the May 17 week, right in trend with the last six reports. Redbook noted wet weather in the week hurt sales at department stores which are especially sensitive to seasonal business. Redbook and ICSC-UBS are now both showing the same 1.6 percent rate. The two indexes popped higher in early April before swinging back and forth between rates of +0.5 percent and +2.0 percent. ICSC-UBS has been the more volatile of the two.
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