Retailers expected to post scant May sales
Chicago – US retailers are expected to post lackluster May sales this week, as consumers spent tax rebate checks on gas and food or used them to reduce debt, rather than buying discretionary items like clothes and jewelry.The average analyst sales estimate calls for an increase of 1.2 percent this May, compared with a 2.9 percent increase a year earlier, according to Thomson Reuters.
Apparel retailers are expected to see sales at stores open at least a year fall 3.1 percent and department stores are expected to see same-store sales fall 4 percent, continuing a trend that has been in place much of the past year.
With consumers hammered by soaring food prices, gasoline near $4 a gallon or more and the continued slump in the U.S. housing market, weak retail sales show no sign of abating.
“It looks like it’s going to be a lot of sluggishness for the rest of this year and into 2009,” said Ken Perkins, president of Retail Metrics.
Consumers began receiving tax rebates in late April as part of the $152 billion economic stimulus package passed by Congress.
