Retailers said unusually warm weather throughout most of the country kept shoppers from loading up on winter clothes.

Store sales were propped up by better weather in May than for the corresponding month a year ago, when unseasonable cold kept shoppers at home.

And the cold weather continues to keep shoppers out of the stores.

This idea has been proposed as a way of keeping shoppers in the town centre.

Analysts attributed the dip mostly to bad weather, which kept shoppers home, and to consumers' concerns over the economy.

Now a variety of factors are keeping Asian shoppers at home.

Sales gains were lackluster at the nation's largest retailers, as a heat wave kept shoppers home.

That could leave Macy's stores short of the new spring merchandise they need to keep shoppers from going to the competition.

It was the largest decline in nearly 10 years of record-keeping and a clear sign that the Sept. 11 attacks kept shoppers away from stores.

Neither rain nor sleet kept shoppers from their destinations last weekend.