Retail

Retail sales’ robust gains

(THE PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER) - Shoppers shrugged off the snow and worries about the economy to buy full-price spring clothing and other items at the nation’s malls in February, resulting in the strongest retail-sales gain since November 2007, a month before the recession started.

The news also helped soothe fears among some economists that weak consumer spending might make the recovery short-lived.

A broad array of merchants, from luxury retailer Nordstrom Inc. to midbrow Macy’s Inc. to discounter Target Corp., reported solid sales increases yesterday that beat analysts’ estimates.

Last month’s overall 3.7 percent gain in same-store sales, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’ index of 31 merchants, came in the face of a decline in consumer confidence, high joblessness, and tight credit.

It marked the third consecutive monthly sales increase for retailers, according to the council.

The figures for sales at stores open at least a year - same-store sales - are an important measure of retailers’ health.

When the Great Recession began, shoppers flocked to cheaper stores, but yesterday’s figures show that consumers are wandering back to their old higher-price haunts for certain items, while still shopping at such discounters as TJX Cos. Inc. and Target.

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