NEW YORK (CNN/Money) - U.S. chain store retail sales slipped during the Thanksgiving holiday week, as consumers took advantage of discounted merchandise, two industry reports said Tuesday.
Sales fell 1.5 percent in the week ended Nov. 27, compared with a 0.8 percent rise in the previous week, the International Council of Shopping Centers and UBS said in a joint report.
Compared with the same week a year ago, sales growth slowed to 2.4 percent after a 3.9 percent rise the preceding week.
"As the 'traditional' holiday selling season got underway on Friday, consumers headed to those retailers who provided promotions and discounts," said Michael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research.
"It appears that sales on Black Friday were strong; weakened on Saturday and posted a moderate gain on Sunday. Given that only six percent of consumers have completed their holiday shopping thus far, there still is a considerable amount of holiday shopping yet to be done," he said.
"As a result of the recent weakness in sales, ICSC has lowered its monthly sales expectations to 2.5 percent to 3.0 percent from 3.0 percent to 4.0 percent for November, on a year-over-year basis," Niemira added.
The ICSC-UBS Weekly Chain Store Sales Snapshot is compiled from a group of major discount, department and chain stores across the country that report their weekly results.
Separately, Redbook Research said sales in the last week of November dipped 0.5 percent compared with October.
But on a year-over-year comparison, chain store sales rose 0.9 percent for the week ended Nov. 27.
"Extensive promotional activity, coupon and free gift card giveaways helped to lure shoppers. Business slowed on Saturday, but retailers remained relatively hopeful for the season. In contrast to department stores, some big discounters didn't discount as heavily leading to disappointing, below-plan sales in the final week," the report said.
The Redbook data are compiled from a sample of same-store sales at general merchandise retailers representing about 9,000 stores.
-- Reuters contributed to this report
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