New York, May 8 (BridgeNews)- The Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi/UBS Warburg said Tuesday its weekly chain store index for the week ending May 5 was down 0.5% in the first decline on a week-to-week basis since March 31 and the first year-over-year decline since the week ending April 22, 2000. Sales were generally "on-to-below-plan" for most retailers, the report said.
* * * BTM-UBSW said the report shows fewer consumers are shopping and those who are shopping are bargain hunting.
Reinforcing year-over-year sales weakness was a decline in traffic. According to RCT's National Traffic Index as measured either year-over-year or versus the prior week, customer traffic fell by about 2% in the latest week compared to the same period of 2000 and was below last year's level in six of the seven days of the latest week.
On a year-on-year basis, sales were down 0.7%, BTM-UBSW said. For April, BTM-UBSW expects comparable store sales will increase by 3% versus April of 2000, a bit stronger than the March performance.