Apparel stores and wholesale clubs enjoyed strong gains as chain-store sales rose 2.8 percent over year-ago levels during the week ended Saturday.
As measured by The Retail Economic LLC and Goldman Sachs, weekly sales were 2.1 percent below their performance in the prior week, when they fell 3.8 percent from their levels of the holiday week ended Dec. 27. The year-on-year gain for the week ended Jan. 3 was 3.9 percent, an increase believed to have been fueled by post-holiday gift-card redemption.
“January is one of the slowest times of the year for retailers as holiday gift returns dominate the retail landscape during the first part of the month, offset by holiday gift-card redemption, with gift cards accounting for a record share of consumers’ 2014 holiday expenditures,” said Michael Niemira, chief economist and principal of The Retail Economist. “Over the past week, most retail segments posted a modest gain relative to the same week of the prior year, with the exception of furniture and office supply stores.”
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Gift cards accounted for nearly a quarter — 24.6 percent — of holiday gift sales during the holiday 2014 season, up from 23.7 percent in 2013.
During the comparable week of 2014, ended Jan. 11, year-on-year sales were up 1.3 percent while sequential sales dipped 1 percent.
With apparel stores and wholesale clubs strong and furniture and office supply stores weak, most other categories of retailing posted “modest increases,” according to Niemira.
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Low gasoline prices continued to benefit consumers, with the average price of a gallon of regular-grade unleaded gasoline 35.7 percent below the year-ago level last week, but weather didn’t’ have a substantial effect, even with temperatures an average of 2.6 degrees colder than during the 2014 week and 5.6 degrees below their long-term average.
The Retail Economist estimates that the annualized savings from lower gas prices equate to about $100 billion, with between 10 and 20 percent of that additional discretionary spending power already spent.