Retail sales post strong gain

March 5, 2010 at 12:00a.m.

Associated Press

NEW YORK

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

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

A broad array of merchants, from luxury retailer Nordstrom to midbrow Macy’s Inc. to discounter Target Corp., reported better-than-expected solid sales increases on Thursday that beat Wall Street analysts’ estimates.

The overall 3.7 percent gain in February, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers’s 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 ICSC.

When the Great Recession began, shoppers had flocked to cheaper stores from their higher-priced rivals, but Thursday’s figures offer clear evidence that consumers, albeit still thrifty, are returning to their old higher-price haunts for certain items while still shopping at discounters.

Still, though consumers are starting to spend a little more, the figures were boosted partly because sales in February 2009 were so awful.