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 11/4/08 For wk 11/1 2008 | ||||||||
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Highlights
Indications are pointing squarely at a rare third straight monthly decline for retail sales, data to be released by the Commerce Department next week. Redbook, which like ICSC-Goldman, offers indications on non-auto non-gas spending shows one of the weakest rates in memory, at a year-on-year +0.3 percent in the Nov. 1 week and compared with +0.6 percent for ICSC-Goldman. Unit vehicle sales, released yesterday by manufacturers, showed one of the poorest results on record.
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