US Retail Sales

Data Consumption

Source: Census Bureau
Source Link: https://www.census.gov/
Frequency: Monthly
Next Release(s): April 21st, 2026 8:30 AM

Link to historical releases

Latest Updates

Source
U.S. retail and food services sales fell -0.2% MoM but rose +3.2% YoY in January 2026 to $733.5 billion, indicating a modest monthly pullback following stable holiday-period spending.
- Total retail and food services sales declined -0.2% MoM to $733.5B but increased +3.2% YoY, while sales for the November 2025 to January 2026 period were +2.9% higher than the same three-month period a year earlier.
- Retail trade sales alone fell -0.2% MoM and increased +3.0% YoY, reflecting the broader softness across goods retailers during the month.
- Sales excluding motor vehicles and parts were unchanged MoM and rose +3.9% YoY, while sales excluding gasoline stations increased +0.1% MoM and +3.7% YoY, showing steadier underlying retail spending once volatile categories are removed.
- Motor vehicle and parts dealers saw sales fall -0.9% MoM and rise only +0.1% YoY, with auto and other motor vehicle dealers also declining -0.9% MoM and -0.2% YoY.
- Gasoline station sales dropped -2.9% MoM and -3.7% YoY, marking the largest monthly decline among major categories and weighing on the headline retail figure.
- Building materials and garden equipment dealers rose +0.6% MoM and +4.3% YoY, while food and beverage stores increased +0.2% MoM and +1.4% YoY, including grocery stores at +0.2% MoM and +1.5% YoY.
- Several discretionary retail categories declined MoM, including clothing stores (-1.7% MoM; +3.0% YoY), electronics and appliance stores (-0.6% MoM; +2.0% YoY), and sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and book stores (-1.2% MoM; +3.2% YoY).
- Nonstore retailers increased +1.9% MoM and +10.9% YoY, the strongest annual growth among major categories, while miscellaneous store retailers rose +2.0% MoM and +10.8% YoY.
- Food services and drinking places declined -0.2% MoM but increased +3.9% YoY, indicating continued annual growth in spending at restaurants and bars despite the modest monthly dip.
Source
US retail sales were basically unchanged in December (vs 0.4% MoM expected), slowing from a 0.6% MoM increase in November (unrevised).
- Retail sales (ex autos) were unchanged month-over-month (vs 0.3% MoM expected), and sales (ex autos and gas) saw no growth as well.
- Most segments saw small gains or declines, including the largest segments: motor vehicle (-0.2% MoM) and nonstore retailers (+0.1% MoM).
- The largest gain came from the building materials segment, up 1.2% MoM for the second straight month.
- Many of the smaller segments saw significant declines: clothing (-0.7% MoM), miscellaneous stores (-0.9% MoM), furniture (-0.9% MoM), and electronics (-0.4% MoM).
Source
US retail sales increased 0.6% MoM (vs 0.4% MoM expected) in November after a -0.1% MoM decline in October (revised down from advance estimate of 0.0% MoM).
- Retail sales (ex autos) increased 0.5% MoM (vs 0.4% MoM expected), and sales (ex autos and gas) were up 0.6% MoM.
- Almost every segment saw gains in November, led by sporting goods & hobby stores (+1.9% MoM), gas stations (+1.4% MoM), and building materials & supplies stores (+1.3% MoM).
- Motor vehicle & parts sales were up 1.0% MoM but down -0.7% YoY.
- Solid growth from the larger non-store (0.4% MoM) and food services & drinking places (+0.6% MoM) segments helped boost the headline growth rate.
Source
U.S. retail and food services sales were flat (vs +0.1% MoM expected) and up 3.5% YoY in October 2025, reflecting stalled headline growth as auto-related weakness offset gains elsewhere.
- Retail sales excluding motor vehicles and parts rose +0.4% MoM (vs +0.3% MoM expected) and up 4.0% YoY, indicating firmer underlying momentum once volatile auto sales are removed.
- Retail sales excluding gasoline increased +0.1% MoM (+3.6% YoY), showing modest growth despite softer fuel-related spending.
- Core retail sales excluding autos and gasoline advanced +0.5% MoM (+4.2% YoY), pointing to relatively steady demand across core goods categories.
- Motor vehicle and parts dealers declined -1.6% MoM (+1.2% YoY), with auto dealers down -1.7% MoM, driving most of the headline weakness.
- Furniture and home furnishings stores rose +2.3% MoM (+0.5% YoY), marking one of the stronger monthly gains among discretionary categories.
- Electronics and appliance stores increased +0.7% MoM (+4.9% YoY), continuing a solid year-over-year trend.
- General merchandise stores rose +0.5% MoM (+2.0% YoY), led by a +4.9% MoM jump at department stores, while nonstore retailers increased +1.8% MoM (+9.0% YoY), remaining the strongest YoY category.
- Food services and drinking places fell -0.4% MoM (+4.1% YoY), indicating a pullback after prior gains but still maintaining solid annual growth.
U.S. retail and food services sales rose 0.2% MoM (vs 0.4% MoM expected) in September 2025, reflecting a modest monthly gain, while the YoY comparison against September 2024 showed a 4.3% increase, indicating steady underlying demand despite mixed category performance.
- Retail sales (ex autos) increased 0.3% MoM (vs 0.4% MoM expected), and sales (ex autos and gas) were up 0.1% MoM (vs 0.4% MoM expected).
- Motor vehicle and parts dealers fell -0.3% MoM, with auto dealers down -0.2%, continuing the segment’s recent volatility.
- Gasoline station sales rose 2.0% MoM, the strongest monthly increase among major categories, supported by higher fuel spending.
- Furniture and home furnishings stores increased 0.6% MoM, reversing declines in prior months and contributing modestly to discretionary demand.
- Electronics and appliance stores fell -0.5% MoM, consistent with ongoing weakness in big-ticket discretionary categories.
- Sporting goods, hobby, musical instruments, and bookstores posted the sharpest decline at -2.5% MoM, underscoring soft discretionary spending.
- Nonstore retailers (e-commerce) rose 2.9% MoM, marking one of the strongest gains in the report and continuing the segment’s solid multi-month trend.
- Food services and drinking places increased 0.7% MoM, extending consistent growth and highlighting ongoing strength in services-oriented household spending.
Consumers continued to show their resilience in August as retail sales came in above expectations in the second month of Q3 2025. The headline sales total increased by 0.6% MoM, ahead of the consensus forecast of just 0.2% MoM. Adding to the strength in the report was an upward revision in July's monthly growth from 0.5% MoM to 0.6% MoM. Overall, the summer months have brought about a strong trend in the retail sector with monthly growth averaging around 0.75% from June to August. Sales in those three months are up 1.0% over the March-May period and up 4.5% YoY.

The August retail sales number was heavily affected by the large auto segment as well. Retail sales of motor vehicles & parts were up 0.5% MoM, slightly behind the headline pace as the auto market cooled down from volatility seen earlier this year, caused by tariffs. Affordability is also a concern and has put a bit of a dampener on auto spending over the summer. The segment’s sales over the last three months were down by -0.4% MoM compared to the March-May period. However, on an annual basis, auto sales are up 5.6% YoY.

Outside of the auto segment, sales growth was even stronger than the headline rate, up 0.7% MoM, ahead of expectations of a 0.4% MoM increase. Here’s how the segments break down:
- The non-store segment of sales, the second largest segment, played a major role in driving sales growth in August. It saw a sharp 2.0% MoM increase, the largest one-month increase since September 2024. Removing this segment and the auto segment, sales growth was just 0.3% MoM in August and averaged 0.5% MoM in the summer months.
- Food & drinking place sales growth was 0.7% MoM in August and has been pretty strong over the summer. However, the solid growth in August looks tamer after a slight -0.1% MoM drop in July. Regardless, spending on this segment is up a healthy 6.5% YoY.
- Sales growth in various non-discretionary segments was a bit tamer. The food & beverage (+0.3% MoM), general merchandise (-0.1% MoM), and gas station (+0.5% MoM) segments all saw increases in August below the headline rate. When adjusted for inflation, these smaller gains suggest flat volume growth.
- Real estate-related segments looked to be some of the weakest segments in August. Furniture sales dropped -0.3% MoM during the month, though this did come after a 1.6% MoM increase in July. This segment may also have been affected by tariff-related volatility since furniture purchases tend to be infrequent and on the larger side. Building materials sales were up just 0.1% MoM in August and fell -0.9% during the summer months. Both tariffs and housing sector weakness are likely to continue to weigh on sales here in the near future.
US retail sales data in July pointed to a continuation of strength in consumer spending. Total retail sales increased 0.5% MoM in July, which was in line with what analysts expected, but the more surprising news was an upward revision in the June data that showed that monthly retail sales growth was a robust 0.9% MoM, up from the 0.6% MoM in the initial estimate. The strength fades a bit when excluding autos and gas. Retail sales excluding those categories were up just 0.2% MoM in July, a more substantial slowdown from the 0.8% MoM increase in June. Still, the near-term trend is robust. Sales ex gas and autos in the May to July period were 1.0% higher than in the February through April period. The bottom line is that even though retail sales growth has been volatile recently, the momentum appears to be holding up well as the nominal annual gain is still hovering around 4% YoY.

Here are some notes on key retail segments:
- Auto sales were the main force behind the headline gain as they increased 1.7% MoM in July, adding to the 1.6% MoM increase in June. However, these strong gains are a bit of a rally from the drop in sales that followed the tariff front-running in Q1. On an annual basis, auto sales are still growing at a healthy 4.7% YoY and not showing signs of capitulation.
- Non-store sales, the second largest retail category behind auto sales, were up 0.8% MoM and 8.0% YoY. The growth here was another reason for the strong headline number as e-commerce sales continue to drive consumer spending higher.
- Food & drinking services, down -0.4% MoM, were the primary dampener to spending growth. This affected the headline number, but is excluded from the retail trade total, which grew a robust 0.7% MoM. Even though there was a monthly decline, food & drinking services spending is still up 5.6% YoY.
- Broadly, most of the other categories saw sales higher in Jul,y with the largest gains in furniture (+1.4% MoM), sporting goods (+0.8% MoM), and clothing (+0.7% MoM). Interestingly, many of these segments would be sensitive to the rise in tariff rates on imported consumer goods, so it is safe to say that tariffs (and the modest increases in goods prices that have come so far) have not deterred consumers from buying goods.
- Building materials, down -1.0% MoM, and electronics & appliances, -0.6% MoM, look a bit like outliers. These categories might be a reflection of weakness in the real estate market, which is finding it difficult to cope with high interest rates.
US retail sales rose 0.6% MoM in June, well above the 0.1% MoM consensus forecast, partially reversing the -0.9% MoM drop in May. Sales were up 0.5% QoQ and 4.1% YoY in Q2 2025, with core retail sales (ex-auto and gas) also increasing 0.6% MoM and accelerating to a 1.1% QoQ gain.
- Motor vehicle and parts sales rebounded 1.2% MoM after a -3.8% MoM drop in May, and were up 6.5% YoY in June.
- Gasoline sales were flat MoM, but down -3.3% QoQ and -5.6% YoY in Q2, reflecting weak oil prices.
- Nonstore sales rose 0.4% MoM and 1.5% QoQ, the strongest quarterly gain among goods segments.
- Food services & drinking places were up 0.6% MoM and 2.5% QoQ, the highest among all categories.
- Discretionary goods like electronics (-0.1% MoM), furniture (-0.1% MoM), and sporting goods (+0.2% MoM) were soft but had minimal impact on the headline due to their small weight.
The May US retail sales report showed a soft consumer in the early months of the second quarter of 2025. In May, overall retail sales were down -0.9% MoM, coming in weaker than the expected drop of -0.7% MoM. In addition to the weak May print, the Census Bureau revised down the slight April gain of 0.1% MoM to a slight decline of -0.1% MoM. The drop in the headline sales total was caused by large declines in the auto & parts and gas segments which were down -3.5% MoM and -2.0% MoM, respectively. While both data points look weak, they were not necessarily a result of consumer weakness.
- Auto sales had surged at the end of Q1 2025 due to consumers front running tariffs, and the decline in May is a result of that force dissipating. On an annual basis, sales are still up 2.5% YoY, and sales in the last three months are still up 6.7% over the same three month period last year.
- Gas sales continue to be affected by weak gas prices. In the May CPI report, the gasoline CPI index fell -2.6% MoM suggesting that all of the -2.0% MoM decline in gas sales could be attributed to the effects of prices. Indeed, gas prices have yet to see their typical seasonal rise so May retail gas station sales are down -6.9 YoY (the same annual comparison as April).
Excluding auto and gas sales, May retail sales were only down -0.1% MoM and, on an annual basis, were up 4.6% MoM. The segments counted in this total were mixed, but the larger categories dropped while the gains were seen in the smaller categories. For example, two of the larger core segments, food & drinking places (-0.9% MoM) and food & beverages (-0.7% MoM), saw significant declines which were only partly offset by rises in furniture (+1.2% MoM), sporting goods (+1.3% MoM), and miscellaneous sales (+2.9% MoM). Non-store sales was the only major retail segment that posted a significant gain, up 0.9% MoM. Overall, the core segments negate some of the pessimistic sentiment elicited by the headline move, but generally consumption continues to get gradually softer.
US retail sales in April increased just 0.1% MoM, a sharp slowdown in consumer spending following the 1.7% MoM increase in March (which was actually revised up from 1.5% MoM). Despite the slowdown, the small increase was a slight beat over expectations that there would be no growth in sales. Both auto and gas sales weighed down the headline number:
- Motor vehicle and auto part retail sales fell -0.1% MoM in April, keeping the overall sales subdued due to its heavy weight. However, the small decline in auto & parts sales is actually a bit of a surprise as sales surged in March, up 5.5% MoM. That means that consumer spending on autos was remained strong in April with an annual increase of 9.4% YoY.
- Gas sales fell -0.5% MoM in April as weak oil prices continue to keep spending on gasoline low. In the three months to April, gas sales are down -1.1% compared to the previous three months and down -3.9% YoY. Energy commodity prices will have to bounce before this segment of sales can recover.
The core segment of sales that excludes autos and gas saw a slightly stronger increase of 0.2% MoM. The performance across segments was generally mixed with the strongest gains in food services & drinking places (+1.2% MoM) and building materials & supplies (+0.8% MoM) offset by declines elsewhere. The large non-store segment only increased 0.2% MoM but was still at a healthy 7.5% YoY gain. The sharpest declines were seen in sporting goods & hobbies (-2.5% MoM) and miscellaneous stores (-2.1% MoM) which look to be reversals of strong March gains.

Overall, the April retail sales report is not much of a surprise given the strong gain in March. Consumers were always going to slow from the pacey spending growth fueled by tariff front-running, so we shouldn’t look too much into the monthly numbers as a sign of consumer weakness. In fact, many segments reported strong annual rates because there wasn’t much of a reversal of the March spending growth, so the report actually looks a bit stronger in that light.
US retail sales bounced back strongly to end the first quarter of 2025 after January spending was hampered by bad weather and February sales disappointed. The strong result is not a clear signal of economic strength, however, as it’s likely that the jump in sales was driven by consumers picking up spending ahead of tariffs, especially in the auto segment. Instead, quarterly growth rates point to a weaker result of a slow decline in consumption growth.

Headline Retail Sales

US retail & food services sales posted a strong result in March, surging 1.4% MoM and beating expectations of a 1.3% MoM gain. The monthly increase is the strongest since January 2023 and is considered a rebound from the weak results in the first two months of the year. When looking at the first quarter as a whole, retail sales were only up 0.3% QoQ.

The jump in sales in March was driven by a strong increase in auto sales. Retail spending on autos and auto parts surged 5.3% MoM and was up 8.8% YoY. The move was a result of two major factors. First, January and February auto sales were notably weak, so a rebound to close Q1 was largely expected. Second, consumers looked to front-run the 25% tariff on auto imports that Trump announced would be put in place in April. So what we’re seeing here is a largely secular move higher that is likely to be reversed in April. Auto sales in Q1 as a whole were still weak despite the March surge, falling -0.9% QoQ.

Offsetting the large increase in auto sales was a large decline in gas station sales. The -2.5% MoM drop was caused by oil prices falling in March and causing a similar decline in gas prices (-6.3% MoM according to March CPI). The annual change in gas station sales flipped to a decline of -4.3% YoY in March, and for the quarter as a whole, was -0.7% YoY.

Core Retail Sales

When excluding both gas sales and auto sales, retail sales still posted a strong increase, up 0.8% MoM, which actually matched the core sales increase in February. Notably, only one of the core retail sales subsegments saw a decline in March, and the rest saw some kind of increase. The core segment results inspire a little bit more confidence in the consumption picture. When excluding the weak auto segment, core retail sales were up 0.6% QoQ in the first quarter.
- The building materials & garden equipment segment was the core segment with the largest increase in March, up 3.3% MoM. This was the largest MoM gain in four years and a reversal from five straight monthly declines. I suspect there was some tariff impact here combined with a positive change in the weather in March vs January and February. Weakness in the first two months meant that building materials sales were still down -1.6% QoQ, the largest quarterly drop since Q2 2023.
- Food services & drinking places was another segment with a strong bounce, up 1.8% MoM, posting its largest monthly increase since January 2023. This segment was notably weak in February when it dropped -0.8% MoM, and the strong end to Q1 brings the quarterly increase to 0.2% QoQ. Like the building materials segment, I think the bounce here was partly driven by weather, but there are also more signs of consumer strength here because tariffs likely didn’t impact this segment much.
- Core segments that may have been impacted by tariffs include electronics (+0.8% MoM), sporting & hobby goods (+2.4% MoM), health & personal care (+0.7% MoM), and general merchandise (+0.6% MoM). It’s likely that without the tariffs, these segments would have been closer to flat.
- Nonstore retail sales were one of the weakest categories in March, up just 0.1% MoM, but that followed a surge of 3.2% MoM in February. Interestingly, there wasn’t much of a response in this category to tariffs.
- The sole segment posting a decline was furniture sales, down -0.7% MoM. Despite the drop, sales in this segment were still up 7.7% YoY, and they increased 0.9% QoQ.
NRF Retail Monitor

The NRF Retail Monitor, released a few days before the Census report, saw retail sales (ex autos and gas) growth a bit weaker in March at 0.6% MoM. The main deviation was in the building & garden supplies segment, which, according to the NRF, saw sales down -0.81% MoM, not a jump of 3.3% MoM. It was also more pessimistic on electronics sales (-0.29% MoM) and health & personal care (-0.44% MoM). One thing that was consistent across both reports was the strong performance in food services & drinking places, which the NRF reported up 1.48% MoM. In general, the NRF report presents a smoother view of sales than the Census report, where the February drop was smaller and the March gain was weaker.

Overall, it’s hard to take much away from the March retail report because of the volatility in Q1 due to weather and the impact of tariff front-running on the March numbers. A trend is more visible when looking at quarterly trends. The increase of retail sales excluding autos and gas slowed to about 0.56% QoQ in Q1 2025, the lowest since Q1 2024 and a clearer signal that consumption growth is gradually slowing. If tariffs are in place throughout Q2, I expect that to have a dampening effect on goods sales growth through higher prices and weaker personal income (through lower wage growth and/or higher unemployment).

US Retail Sales

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Headline Retail Sales

Core Retail Sales

NRF Retail Monitor