May 6, 2008

U.S. retailers’ sales rose 2.3% last weekBy DailyHerald.com

U.S. retail sales rose the most last week since February as consumers bought Easter gifts and clothing.

Sales at stores open at least a year advanced 2.3 percent from the same week a year earlier, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS Securities LLC said today in a statement. Retail sales probably increased as much as 2 percent in April, the group reiterated.

The timing of the Easter holiday helped counter eroding consumer confidence and cooler weather at the end of the month. Shoppers have reined in purchases of clothes, shoes and home goods because of higher food and gasoline costs and a slumping U.S. housing market. Some shoppers seeking bargains are switching to Wal-Mart Stores Inc. and Costco Wholesale Corp.

“The underlying pace of demand remains very stagnant if adjusted for the Easter shift,” the ICSC said in the statement.

March same-store sales dropped 0.5 percent, the biggest monthly decline in almost a year and the worst March since 1995. Same-store sales are considered the best measure of a retailer’s performance because they exclude locations that have recently opened or closed.

“We’re still in this low-growth period,” Eric Beder, a retail analyst at Brean Murray Carret & Co., said yesterday in an interview. “While April will be better than March, we’re not out of the woods yet.”

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