Econoday Economic Report: Redbook May 3, 2011

2011 Economic Calendar

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Redbook

Released On 5/3/2011 8:55:00 AM For wk4/30, 2011

	Prior	Actual
Store Sales Y/Y change	5.3 %	5.5 %

Highlights
Redbook's tally is showing a much greater Easter-related boost than ICSC-Goldman making a tricky time for the retail sector no easier to read. Redbook's year-on-year same-sales rate rose slightly to plus 5.5 percent in the April 30 week, more than two percentage points above ICSC-Goldman. Redbook is likely to move back down beginning with next week's report when Easter distortions, currently making for an easy comparison, finally go off the board. Due to the distortions, chain-store reports on Thursday are likely to show greater year-on-year growth in April than in March.

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