Good weather and sales promotion in stores drove consumers into malls in May as the summer shopping season began.
Major chain stores posted a 4.3 percent sales increase in May compared with the same month a year earlier in figures released Thursday, beating analysts’ expectations of a 3.9 percent rise, according to Thomson Reuters’ tally of nine big retailers. Stripping out the effect of drugstores, last month’s retail sales were up 4.4 percent.
Shoppers who stayed home during long bouts of cold weather this winter have returned to stores to spruce up their wardrobes, analysts said. Thomson Reuters noted that mall traffic improved during the long Memorial Day weekend.
May was the third straight month for which sales exceeded expectations. Costco Wholesale Corp. saw sales rise 6 percent. Action-sports chain Zumiez Inc. enjoyed a 3.6 percent bump. L Brands, parent company of Victoria’s Secret and Bath & Body Works, said sales rose 3 percent.