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Despite Consumer Caution, Sept. Sales Edge Higher

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Despite indications of a consumer slowdown, retailers reporting monthly sales on Thursday showed both sequential and year-over-year gains.

COLUMBUS, Ohio — Despite indications of a consumer slowdown, retailers reporting monthly sales on Thursday showed both sequential and year-over-year gains.

An index of 25 retailers reporting sales for the five weeks ending Oct. 2 showed comparable sales were up 5.7%, according to Kantar Retail here, an improvement over a 2.8% gain in the same period last year and over a 5.1% increase in the August period.

Food retailers reporting sales included Issaquah, Wash.-based Costco Wholesale, which said comparable-club sales improved by 12%, or 7% excluding fuel, during the period. Rite Aid reported 1.3% comps; Walgreen Co. 3.1%; and said comps improved by 5.3%. BJ’s Wholesale Club, recently taken over by a private equity firm, did not report its monthly sales figures.

Kantar said the strong sales trend reflected “unavoidable” back to school purchases and warned that its research indicated shoppers intend to spend less in months ahead, although spending is not expected to fall as dramatically as the drop in consumer confidence might indicate.

“The resiliency of shoppers in September, especially at apparel and department stores, partly reflects unavoidable back-to-school purchases amid higher apparel prices. At the same time, sales are holding up as shoppers’ spending intentions fall off much less dramatically than the steep falloff in consumer confidence,” Doug Hermanson, economist for Kantar Retail, said in a statement.