U.S. Weekly Store Traffic Fell 4.9%

From Bloomberg: U.S. Weekly Store Traffic Fell 4.9%
U.S. retail store traffic fell last week as steeper discounts failed to lure shoppers before and after Christmas during what may be the worst holiday-shopping season in four decades.

Traffic declined 4.9 percent in the week ended Dec. 27 from a year earlier, ShopperTrak RCT Corp. said today in a statement. Total holiday sales will decrease 2.3 percent and traffic will drop 16 percent, the Chicago-based research firm estimated, lowering its previous predictions on both.

U.S. retailers’ sales at stores open at least a year declined 1.8 percent in the week ended Dec. 27, the largest year- over-year drop in almost six years, the International Council of Shopping Centers and Goldman Sachs Group Inc. said yesterday.

The ICSC’s forecast last week of a same-store sales decrease of as much as 2 percent in November and December is more than its previously projected decline of 1 percent. It would be the largest decrease since at least 1970, when the trade group started tracking shifts from the previous year.