Jul 11, 2008

Retail sales shot up for a second monthBy Jackie CrosbyStarTribune.com

Flush with rebate checks that didn’t get entirely eaten up by gas, food and credit card bills, shoppers boosted the nation’s retail sales for the second month in a row, ringing in a 4.3 percent increase in June, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers.

While it was the biggest overall jump in same-store sales since March 2007, many analysts and retailers suspect that government’s stimulus program has run its course, and that a grim back-to-school shopping season looms.

“More than $100 billion of tax rebates, and all we get is a two-month booster shot for the economy?” analyst Mark Miller of William Blair & Co. in Chicago pondered in a report Thursday.

In general, discounters, membership clubs and off-price retailers are faring much better than are department stores in the tough environment.

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