Sales rise in October but at slowest pace in nearly a year
Consumers kept spending in October, but at a slower pace than in recent months.
Total retail sales (includes restaurants but excludes automobile dealers and gasoline stations) increased 0.15% to $561.7 billion in October, and were up 3.57% year over year, according to the CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor. In September, sales rose 0.28% month over month to $560.8 billion and were up 4.05% year over year.
Core retail sales (excluding restaurants, auto dealers and gas stations) edged up 0.26% to $454.2 billion in October and were up 3.36% year over year. In September, core sales rose 0.27% to $453.1 billion.
Total sales were up 5.75% for the first 10 months of the year. Core sales were up 5.63%.
Nearly all retail sectors saw month-over month gains in October, with the exception of furniture/home furnishings, which was down 0.21%. The sector is down 2.62% year over year. Year over year, the weakest sector is electronics and appliances, down 9.30%.
“Households are managing budgets carefully, timing purchases around special offers and sales events in order to stretch their dollars,” said Matthew Shay, CEO of the National Retail Federation.
Here is a month-over-month review of September retail sales by sector.
•Building & garden supplies: Up 0.75%
•Clothing & accessories : Up 0.09%
•Electronics & appliances: Up 0.02%
•Food services & drinking places: Down 0.32%
•Furniture & Home Furnishings: Down 0.21%
•General merchandise: Up 0.41%
•Grocery & beverage: Up 0.20%
•Health & personal care; Up 0.16%
•Misc. Retailer: Uo 0.66%
•Sporting goods, hobby, music & bookstores: 0.41%
•Unallocated non-store sales: 0.11%
The CNBC/NRF Retail Monitor is based on new, fully enhanced methodology and includes gross dollar sales levels in addition to percentage changes at both the topline and category levels. It draws on a panel of roughly 120 million debit and credit cards from Affinity Solutions, weighted to reflect the makeup of U.S. consumers and projected to match U.S. Census Bureau retail sales totals.
Online sales from store-based retailers are now attributed back to their respective categories, when applicable, so sector figures reflect total omnichannel spending; remaining non-store retail sales are reported separately. The underlying data is also available for download. Full details on the methodology are available here.
