Americans shifted their spending in November toward apparel and sporting goods and away from electronics, according to advance estimates released by the U.S. Department of Commerce. Advance estimates are the first put out by the U.S. Census Bureau and will be revised twice before becoming final.
The government estimated that sales at sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores reached $8.09 billion, up 2.3% from October and 12.3% from November 2009.
Sales at clothing and clothing accessories stores, meanwhile, rose an estimated 2.7% from October and 7.5% for November 2009.
Sales of electronics and appliance stores, by contrast, dipped 0.6% below their level in October and were up just 0.9% from November a year ago.
The U.S. Census Bureau’s advance estimates of total U.S. retail trade sales for November, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were up 0.9% (±0.5%) from October 2010, and 8.1% (±0.7%) above last year.
Non-store retailers, which include retailers selling only online or through catalogues or television, were up 14.2% (±3.1%) from November 2009 and auto and other motor vehicle dealers sales were up 12.8% (±2.5%) from November last year.
