The International Council of Shopping Centers reported that U.S. chain store sales in February rose by a strong 3.7% on a comparable store basis or much better than its expectation. The February showing was the strongest since November 2007 (+4.9%), which occurred one month ahead of the start of the 2007-2009 recession.
ICSC said many retailers were negatively impacted by February’s severe snowstorms, especially in the Northeast. ICSC figures that the industry-wide weather drag on the February sales growth rate was worth about one percentage point. However, that did not seem to bring to a halt the retail recovery, even in the most weather-sensitive segments.
Looking ahead to March, ICSC Research anticipates that sales will increase by about 2.5% as those easy year-ago comparisons continue and so too does the consumer recovery.
