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RAPAPORT... U.S. chain-store sales rose 3.3 percent year on year for the week that ended on July 21, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman Sachs. On a week-to-week basis, comparable-store sales rose 1 percent. ''Sales improved over the prior week, but continued a choppy and uneven performance across retail categories,'' said Michael Niemira, ICSC's vice president of research and chief economist. ''Apparel store traffic, according to the ICSC-GS consumer tracking survey, improved appreciably as cooler weather than last year for the nation as a whole likely helped lift back-to-school categories and shifted the composition of spending towards higher-value apparel.'' ICSC Research anticipates that comparable-store sales will increase by between 1 percent and 1.5 percent with stronger growth when excluding drug store sales. 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.
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