WASHINGTON (MNI) – The following is the commentary from the
ICSC-Goldman Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot released Tuesday:

As the retail fiscal month of July came to a close for retailers
this past week, consumers decided to focus their attention on other
things and took a break from shopping at month’s end. As a result, for
the week ending July 28, weekly retail sales declined by 1.7%, according
to the International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and Goldman
Sachs Weekly Chain Store Sales Index. On a year-over-year basis, retail
sales remained positive, but, slowed to 1.8%.

“After a good start for the month, consumers took a pause at month
end with slower customer traffic and sales across all retail segments,”
said Michael Niemira, ICSC vice president of research and chief
economist. “Despite the late July softness in sales, the good news is
that many states will be offering state sales tax holidays in August,
which should rev up consumers’ shopping interest again in the coming
weeks as they take advantage of those tax breaks,” Niemira added.

For the month of July, ICSC Research anticipates that comp-store
sales will increase by between 1.0% and 1.5% overall, including drug
store sales and 3.0% and 3.5% excluding drug stores when retailers
report their monthly sales figures on Thursday, August 2, 2012.

—

Customer traffic at stores slowed appreciably for the week across
all retail segments, according to the ICSC-GS consumer tracking survey.
Consumers seemingly took a pause after booking healthy sales in the
prior week. On a year-over-year basis, sales also moderated to
1.8%following the strongest year-over-year reading in the prior week
since June 16. According to Weather Trends, Inc. (WTI) the U.S. average
temperature was nearly identical with last year, but 3.0F above normal.
WTI observed that “overall, temperatures during the final [fiscal] week
of the retail July [calendar] trended similar to last year for the U.S.
as a whole with hot weather in the eastern two-thirds of the nation,
while the West Coast was below normal.”

Meanwhile, gasoline prices posted their fourth consecutive increase
as the summer driving pressures again put upward pressure on prices at
the pump. The average price of a gallon of regular-grade gasoline rose
by 1.4 cents to $3.508 on July 30, according to the U.S. Energy
Information Administration. Although prices were up 15.2 cents over the
past four weeks, the price of regular-grade gasoline fell by 5.5% in the
latest week compared to the same week of the prior year, which was its
15th consecutive year-over-year price drop.

Upcoming states tax holidays for back-to-school purchases are:
Alabama (August 3-5); Arkansas (August 4-5); Connecticut (August 19-25);
Florida (August 3-5); Georgia (August 10-11); Iowa (August 3-4);
Louisiana (August 3-4); Maryland (August 12-18); Missouri (August 3-5);
New Mexico (August 3-5); North Carolina (August 3-5); Oklahoma (August
3-5); South Carolina (August 3-5); Tennessee (August 3-5); Texas (August
17-19); and Virginia (August 3-5).

** MNI Washington Bureau: 202-371-2121 **

[TOPICS: MAUDT$,MAUDS$,M$U$$$]