Sales by sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores kept pace with overall retail sales in July, which is to say they stalled at about 5% above their level of a year ago, according to advance estimates released by the U.S. Census Bureau. However, on a year-to-date basis, the sector may be lagging overall retail sales.
The latest estimates by Census indicate that total July retail trade sales rose 0.4% (±0.5%) from June 2010, and 5.9% (±0.7%) above July 2009 levels. July retail sales by sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores, meanwhile, reached $7.2 billion in July, which was flat with preliminary estimates for June but up 5.2% from $6.9 billion in July 2009. On an unadjusted basis, sales by sporting goods, hobby, book and music stores reached $46.0 billion in the February through July period, up 4.7% from the same period in 2009. That compares to a 6.9% YTD increase in overall retail sales.
