NEW YORK – Sales at U.S. chain stores rose in the latest week as warm weather fueled demand for summer clothing and other seasonal merchandise, two weekly reports showed on Tuesday.
U.S. chain store sales rose 1.6 percent for the week ended June 8 after a 0.1 percent rise in 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 4.6 percent following the previous week's 3.2 percent year-on-year gain.
Meanwhile, Instinet Research's Redbook Retail Sales Average jumped 2.3 percent in the week ended June 8 compared with the same period last month. Sales compared with the same week last year rose 3.9 percent.
"Hot weather was the dominant theme, driving demand for a broad range of consumer goods," the Redbook report said.
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.
The Redbook Average is compiled from a sample of general merchandise retailers representing about 9,000 stores. Same store sales measure revenues at stores open at least a year.
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