International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC)
Malachy Kavanagh (646) 728-3495, Patrice Selleck (646) 728-3496

ICSC to Report Mall Customer Traffic Counts and Sales This Holiday Season

The International Council of Shopping Centers (ICSC) will report weekly retail sales at the nation's malls starting Thanksgiving weekend and continuing throughout the holiday season.

The sales data collected from a national sample of 70 malls will compare 1999 sales against the previous year for the holiday shopping season. Breakdowns will be provided for eight merchandise categories:

• apparel
• music, video, and home entertainment
• jewelry
• home furnishings and furniture
• shoes
• food court and specialty foods
• stationery, cards and books
• toys/hobby/educational

In addition to the sales figures, for the first time ICSC will be reporting on mall customer traffic trends. Utilizing RCT Systems' National Retail Traffic Index (NRTI) of malls, ICSC will be reporting on peak customer traffic per day, national total visitors by day and national percent of visitors by time of day.

Retail sales reports and traffic counts will be released:

Data Period	Date of Release
Thanksgiving weekend	Monday, Nov. 29
Nov. 29 ­ Dec. 5	Monday, Dec. 6
Dec. 6 ­ Dec. 12	Monday, Dec. 13
Dec. 13 ­ Dec.19	Monday, Dec. 20
End of season	Monday, Dec. 27

Interview Opportunity:

John Konarski, Ph.D., senior vice president, research and government relations, ICSC, is available to provide in-depth analysis including consumer perceptions, purchasing patterns, traffic counts, trends and Internet sales. Telephone and in-person interviews can be arranged.

The International Council of Shopping Centers is the not-for-profit trade association of the shopping center industry, representing more than 38,000 members in U.S., Canada and over 70 other countries.

Founded in 1992, RCT Systems, Inc. provides retail customer traffic-based information, insights and business intelligence services to the shopping center, retail, financial services and media industries.