 |
After robust sales gains for the month of March and especially during the week leading up to Easter, the post-holiday falloff wasn’t as severe as expected. Retailers continued their positive momentum as warm weather drove strong demand for spring merchandise last week, and consumers are becoming less cautious with their discretionary spending.
The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) reported that chain store sales rose a slight 0.1% from the prior week, the fourth consecutive gain, while sales gained a strong 4.0% from the year-ago period.
As expected, there was somewhat of a drop-off during the post-Easter week compared to last week’s 4.7% YoY increase, but lingering warm weather helped to keep apparel sales relatively strong even as customer traffic at discount stores moderated.
“Sales were impacted by the usual post-Easter seasonal weakness, but adjusted for that, sales edged up for the fourth consecutive gain and were helped by seasonally warm weather that continued to drive spring-merchandise demand,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC’s chief economist. Continue reading ‘Retailers Continue Post-Easter Momentum’
