Econoday Economic Report: Redbook January 19, 2011

2011 Economic Calendar

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Redbook

Released On 1/19/2011 8:55:00 AM For wk1/15, 2011

	Prior	Actual
Store Sales Y/Y change	2.8 %	2.5 %

Highlights
Store sales are soft so far this month, the result of heavy weather and a satiated consumer, according to Redbook whose same-store tally came in at a year-on-year plus 2.5 percent in the January 15 week down from 2.8 percent in the prior week. Month-on-month, Redbook reports a 0.6 percent decline that points to trouble for the government's ex-auto ex-gas category of the January retail sales report.

Definition
A weekly measure of sales at chain stores, discounters, and department stores. It is a less consistent indicator of retail sales than the weekly ICSC index. It is also calculated differently than other indicators. For instance, figures for the first week of the month are compared with the average for the entire previous month. When two weeks are available, then these are compared with the average for the previous month, and so on. It might be more useful to compare year-over-year figures since these are indeed compared to the comparable week a year ago. This index is correlated with the general merchandise portion of retail sales covering only about 10 percent of total retail sales. Why Investors Care