Weather Dampens Chain Store Sales Less than Expected

March 2, 2010

This article is included in these additional categories:

Analytics, Automated & MarTech | Financial Services | Retail & E-Commerce

For the second straight month, US chain store retailers saw their sales impacted by weather in February 2010, according to the Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot compiled by the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman-Sachs.

Weather Slows, But Doesn’t Stop, Sales
As opposed to January 2010, which experienced severe weather fluctuations but was generally drier and warmer than normal, February 2010 was unusually cold and snowy. For the fiscal month of February 2010, temperatures were the coldest in 21 years, and it was the snowiest February in at least 30 years, according to Weather Trends International (WTI).

icsc-chain-store-line-graph-mar-2010.jpg

Despite this generally nasty weather, February 2010 chain store sales held up better than expected. The Chain Store Index for the week ending February 27 was 486.4, up 0.7% from the previous year but down 0.8% from the previous week. The Index for the week ending February 20 was 490.4, up 0.9% year-over-year and up 2.3% weekly. For the week ending February 13, the Index reached 479.5, a 0.7% year-over-year drop and 1.6% weekly drop. And for the week ending February 6, the Index hit 487.1, up 1.8% year-over-year and 1.4% weekly.

icsc-chain-store-sales-index-mar-2010.jpg

Chain store sales in 1977 are set to a score of 100.

January Comp Sales Beat Expectations
January 2010 U.S. comparable-store store sales rose by 3% from the same month of 2009, based on an updated tally of 32 retail chains compiled by the ICSC. This beat previous ICSC projections of 1%, based on the expected impact of post-holiday clearance sales.

ICSC expects that industry comp-store sales for February 2010, which is the start of the retail fiscal year and one of the lowest sales volume months of the year, will be up by about 2%.

Leading Economic Index Points to Strengthening Recovery
Better-than-expected February 2010 sales in the face of bad weather support findings from the most recent Conference Board Leading Economic Index (LEI), which rose for the 10th consecutive month in January 2010. Although the LEI’s rate of increase substantially declined following three straight months of increase, the Index still suggests an economic recovery has arrived and is slowly growing stronger.

The LEI, which measures economic activity for the next six months, rose 0.3%, from a revised score of 107.1 to 107.4. This follows a 1.2% increase in December 2009, 1.1% increase in November 2009, and 0.3% increase in October 2009. Since reaching 102.5 in July 2009, the LEI has risen 4.8%. The LEI declined for 20 straight months before starting its current streak of increases in April 2009.

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