Chain store sales rise nearly 5%

New York City A report released Tuesday by the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs found that U.S. weekly chain-store sales improved 4.6% on a comparable-store basis.

The week-to-week sales comparisons though remained flat.

“Helped by seasonably warm temperatures for the week, customer traffic -- especially at department and apparel-specialty stores -- improved over the same week of the prior year,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC director of research and chief economist. “However, with about four to five percentage points of March’s monthly sales lift due to the Easter calendar shift, the April ‘echo’ will depress store sales somewhat. As a result ICSC Research continues to expect that April sales will be flat to down 3%.”