Economic Indicators: Johnson Redbook Weekly and Monthly Reports

The weekly Johnson Redbook Average (“Redbook”) is released every Tuesday at 8:40 am, while  the monthly report is released on the first Thursday of the month.  The Redbook index covers sales figures during the prior week from Sunday to Saturday.  The Redbook is compiled by Redbook Research and no revisions are provided for the weekly releases, however, the monthly releases are revised as more data becomes available.

The Redbook is a sales-weighted index that measures both weekly and monthly nominal comparable-store sales for chain stores.   Since the index measures comparable-store sales, the chain stores used for data collection must be operational for at least one year.  The Redbook represents the general merchandise component of retail sales, which accounts for nearly 10% of total retail sales and does not include gas or auto purchases.  Furthermore, the Redbook index collects its data from a few retailers  with more than $250 billion in annual sales (the actual number of retailers is not disclosed).     The weekly release is not seasonally adjusted and is used primarily for year-on-year comparisons, while the monthly release is seasonally adjusted and can be used to make meaningful comparisions between months and the year.

Although some news articles will mention the information contained in the Redbook, the release is only available to paid subscribers.

This economic indicator’s strength is its immediacy as it helps provide a very general sense of consumer attitudes.  The more comprehensive monthly data is much more reliable and is more heavily valued by investors and traders.  Furthermore, the monthly report tends to be reviewed by those who are interested in the health of the retailers for investing purposes.  Nevertheless, investors and traders pay attention to the Redbook because it can help signal growth and excessive growth, which may lead to inflation.

Tagged with Chain Stores, Comparable-Store Sales, Johnson Redbook, Redbook