CHICAGO - January 4, 2006 - ShopperTrak RCT Corporation's National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) today reported that U.S. retail sales for the month of December increased 4.4 percent as compared to the same month in 2004. Throughout the month, consumers took advantage of the extended holiday shopping season to seemingly purchase gifts closer and closer to both Christmas and Hanukah, culminating in a 25.5 percent week-over-week sales increase for the week ending December 24, helping to salvage the relatively flat holiday season.

While December 26 was another strong performing sales day with consumers returning gifts, rushing to late-season sales and redeeming gift cards, the day still finished behind Black Friday (Nov. 25), Super Saturday (Dec. 17) and the Friday before Christmas (Dec. 23) in the 2005 holiday season. Sales for the week ending December 31 as compared to the same week in 2004 fell a slight 2.0 percent.

"With the 2005 holiday season coming to a close, we can look at December and see that it made a strong showing in comparison to a very healthy December in 2004," said Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak. "Due to the consumer outpouring in December it appears we're on track to reach the 4.2 percent increase we originally projected coming into this holiday season, which should have most retailers breathing a sigh of relief."

Additionally, ShopperTrak reported that on a difficult week-over-week comparison, sales for the seven-day period ending December 31 as compared to the previous week ending December 24 fell 32.4 percent as a full shopping day was lost with the Christmas holiday falling during that period.

Developed by ShopperTrak, the NRSE provides a nationwide benchmark of retail sales. It is derived from the U.S. Commerce Department's GAFO (general merchandise, apparel, furniture, sporting goods, electronics, hobby, books and other related store sales) statistic, as well as ShopperTrak's proprietary industry intelligence on shopper movement and sales statistics. This gives retailers, investors and policy makers the most accurate and timely information on consumer trends available today.

A privately held entity, ShopperTrak leverages 20 years of retail expertise to be the industry's authority for information and analysis of the movement of shoppers in retail environments. ShopperTrak's cutting-edge shopper tracking products and indices offer retail intelligence solutions that enable companies to better understand retail trends and the impact of store and staff performance on company revenues. With more than 45,000 units installed in the world's best known retail outlets and malls, the company's solutions also provide a proven means for retailers to gauge labor efficiencies, advertising and marketing efforts, store design and remodeling programs, merchandise changes, associate training programs, and other budget-intensive strategic initiatives. http://www.shoppertrak.com

EDITOR'S NOTE: The data contained within this news release is the property of ShopperTrak RCT Corporation and may be reprinted, published or broadcast, provided proper credit is given to the National Retail Sales Estimate (NRSE) and ShopperTrak RCT Corporation as the supplier of the information. Please contact Aaron Martin at 312-943-9100 if you have any questions concerning the use of this data.