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Chain store sales slip
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November 20, 2001: 11:20 a.m. ET
Soft Veterans Day sales, bout of warm weather lead to last week's drop.
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NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - Sales at U.S. chain stores fell 0.5 percent last week, compared with the previous week, reflecting softer-than-expected Veterans Day sales and lower apparel sales during a bout of warm weather, according to an industry report released Tuesday.
November sales are expected to grow 3.5 percent from a year ago as the holiday shopping season begins in earnest, according to the weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot from Bank of Tokyo-Mitsubishi and UBS Warburg.
However, because Christmas falls on a Tuesday this year, retailers pick up an extra selling day for the season. But Michael Niemira, the report's author, said several retailers such as May Department Stores (MAY: down $0.45 to $36.05, Research, Estimates), Federated Department Stores (FD: down $0.54 to $37.10, Research, Estimates) and Target (TGT: down $1.20 to $36.59, Research, Estimates) have chosen not to shift their calendars to reflect the extra day. That could alter November sales forecasts to a modest 1.5 percent increase, Niemira said.
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Mall traffic fell 7.3 percent last week from a year earlier, marking the 28th consecutive weekly decline. But that's an improvement over the 8.2 percent drop posted the previous week, the report said.
Home entertainment, home furnishings and electronics were the strongest sellers for the week.
Retailers have been struggling to lure consumers into stores all year as the slowing economy made worse by the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon caused Americans to hold their wallets a little tighter.. 
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