Ahold sees U.S. retail sales dip

AMSTERDAM Ahold today announced that U.S. retail sales for the second quarter 2007 were $4.35 billion, compared with $4.45 billion, a 2.1% decrease. For the first half 2007 sales were $10 billion compared with $10.5 billion, a 3.4% decrease.

Stop & Shop/Giant-Landover had net sales of $4 billion for the second quarter 2007, a 1.9% increase over net sales of $3.9 billion for the same period last year. For the first half of 2007, the segment posted sales of $9 billion, an increase of 1.8% from net sales of $8.9 billion last year.

The Giant-Carlisle segment had net sales of $1 billion for the second quarter 2007, compared with net sales of $881 million for the second quarter 2006, a 13.7% increase. Sales for the first half of 2007 for this segment grew 15% to $2.3 billion from $2 billion last year.