Survey: Foot traffic down 7.7% in Aug.

Chicago ShopperTrak RCT Corp.’s Retail Traffic Index reported that total U.S. foot traffic for the month of August fell 7.7%, while the company’s National Retail Sales Estimate reported retail sales slipped 5.8% for the same period.

Although retail traffic continues to show losses as compared to last year, these declines have narrowed the past two months as June and July traffic levels fell 12.2% and 9.7% respectively compared with the same months in 2008.

ShopperTrak reports that August received a slight boost from back-to-school shopping as total U.S. foot traffic for the month increased 5.9% as compared to July 2009. This uptick allowed the period to fare slightly better than the company’s anticipated 10.0% traffic and 5.9% retail sales declines heading into the period.

On a weekly level, ShopperTrak’s NRSE reported sales for the week ending Sept. 5 slipped 4.1% as compared to last year, while weekly sales declined 0.2% versus the previous seven-day period ending Aug. 29.