Supermarket and department store sales fell in May from a year earlier on a same-store basis for the third straight month mainly due to bad weather, according to industry data released Thursday.
Supermarket sales dropped 3.6 percent to 1.17 trillion yen, the Japan Chain Stores Association said in a preliminary report covering 8,227 stores operated by 97 supermarket chains.
Sales at department stores slid 2.4 percent to 618.9 billion yen, the Japan Department Stores Association said in a preliminary report covering 289 outlets run by 99 department store operators.
The chain stores association attributed the sales decline to bad weather, especially in the latter half of the Golden Week holidays and during weekends. It said sluggish sales of clothing and household products were also behind the lackluster overall performance.
The department store association attributed the sales decline to poor sales of clothing, resulting from bad weather on weekends, the adverse effects of a typhoon in the latter half of the month and lower-than-normal temperatures.
It said continued weak demand from corporate clients also contributed to the poor overall result.