Halloween Provides Retail Boost

New York City, An International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) and UBS Securities report showed that Halloween shopping contributed to a slight increase in chain-store sales for the week ending Oct. 27. Sales grew 0.1% from the prior week, according to the report. On a year-over-year basis, sales grew by 2.5%.

“Although it is always difficult to assess what the most important drivers of sales are in any given week, Halloween is the likely cause for the latest week's lift since the warm weather, fires in California and higher gasoline prices were clearly negative factors,” said Michael P. Niemira, chief economist for ICSC. “Overall, ICSC Research continues to expect that October sales will increase by about 2% on a year-over-year basis,” Niemira added.