ShopperTrak Reports Weekly Sales Rise

New York ShopperTrak RCT Corp.’s National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) Tuesday reported that retail sales for the week ending Jan. 26 increased a rather surprising 8.9% vs. the same period in 2007. Week-over-week sales posted a 5.7% increase vs. the previous week ending Jan. 19.

While last week’s impressive GAFO (general merchandise, apparel, furniture, sporting goods, electronics, hobby, books and other related store sales) retail sales performance was a bit unexpected, retailers might have benefited from the 2008 Martin Luther King, Jr. calendar shift which moved the holiday one weekend later this year, helping boost retail sales.

“The NRSE GAFO sales estimates this past week show that despite various economic pressures, there still seems to be life in consumer spending,” noted Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. “However, we continue to expect that both sales and traffic will decline in the next couple of weeks before picking up again around Valentine’s Day.”