"Although holiday sales were slow and uneven for most of theseason, last-minute shoppers were out in force last week," saidMichael Niemira, ICSC's chief economist and director of research."As a result of this last-minute surge, we expect Decembercomp-store sales will increase by 3.0% to 3.5% on a year-over-yearbasis."

According to the ICSC-UBS ongoing holiday shopping survey, athird of consumers were shopping later this year than last, whichresulted in a more intense holiday gift-buying crunch forlast-minute shoppers. The weekly sales index also rose by 4.3% on ayear-over-year basis, which was the strongest showing since July 3,2004, which was up 4.4% that week.

Overall, based on the ICSC tally of major retailers, thetwo-month holiday season (November and December combined) appearsto be on track for a 2.5% to 3.0% gain, according to Niemira. TheICSC-UBS Weekly U.S. Retail Chain Store Sales Index measurescomp-store sales, excluding restaurant and vehicle demand, and isbenchmarked to a broad-based monthly retail industry salesaggregate representing about 75 retail chain stores, which also iscompiled by ICSC.