Retail Sales Healthy, Pre-Sandy

The national retailers who post monthly sales results enjoyed better-than-expected growth in October, but those numbers don’t reflect any impact from Hurricane Sandy, which battered the East Coast last week, shuttering hundreds of stores and destroying thousands of homes. The 21 retailers tracked by the International Council of Shopping Centers had average sales growth of 5 percent at stores open at least a year, compared with Oct. 2011. The results have retailers feeling optimistic about the upcoming holiday season, even those heavily affected by the storm.