NEW YORK – Unfavorable spring weather continued to hurt weather-dependent merchandise demand such as lawn and garden supplies in pockets of the country, a weekly report showed on Wednesday.
U.S. chain store sales fell 0.2 percent for the week ended May 25 after being flat the previous week, the Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg reported in their Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot.
Compared with the same week last year, the index rose 3.4 percent following the previous week's 3.6 percent year-on-year gain.
The BTM/UBSW Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot is compiled from seven major discount, department and chain stores across the country that report their weekly results.
Those stores include J.C. Penney, Sears, Target, Kmart, Wal-Mart, Federated Department Stores Inc. and May Department Stores Co. The BTM/UBSW index measures sales growth with the year 1977 equaling 100.
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