The U.S. Census Bureau announced that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for April (adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes) were $337.7 billion, a decrease of 0.4% (±0.5%) from the previous month and 10.1% (±0.7%) below April 2008. Total sales for the February through April 2009 period were down 9.2% (±0.5%) from the same period a year ago. The February to March 2009 percent change was revised from -1.2% (±0.5%) to -1.3% (±0.3%).
Retail trade sales were down 0.4% (±0.7%)* from March 2009 and 11.4% (±0.7%) below last year. Gasoline stations sales were down 36.4% (±1.5%) from April 2008 and motor vehicle and parts dealers sales were down 20.7% (±2.3%) from last year.
(In Millions of dollars)
2009 2009 2009 2008 2008
NAICS(1) Kind of Business Apr(3) Mar Feb Apr Mar
Code (a) (p) (r) (r) (r)
Retail & food services, total……………….. 337,677 338,930 343,438 375,614 374,845
Total (excl. motor vehicle & parts)………… 282,279 283,640 287,013 305,724 302,814
Retail ………………………………… 299,516 300,837 304,889 337,996 337,621
GAFO(4)…………………………………… (*) 94,132 95,912 97,725 97,419
441 Motor vehicle & parts dealers……………….. 55,398 55,290 56,425 69,890 72,031
4411,4412 Auto & other motor veh. dealers…………….. 48,831 48,730 49,775 63,406 65,563
442 Furniture & home furnishings stores………….. 7,840 7,879 8,066 9,137 9,187
443 Electronics & appliance stores……………….. 8,322 8,565 9,287 9,462 9,388
44311,13 Appl., T.V. & camera……………………… (*) 6,716 7,411 7,553 7,468
44312 Computer & software stores…………………. (*) 1,849 1,876 1,909 1,920
444 Building material & garden eq. & supplies dealers 24,467 24,400 24,586 27,412 27,038
4441 Building mat. & supplies dealers……………. (*) 20,349 20,546 23,517 23,143
445 Food & beverage stores……………………… 48,301 48,780 48,702 48,923 48,454
4451 Grocery stores……………………………. 43,007 43,489 43,450 43,879 43,492
4453 Beer, wine & liquor stores…………………. (*) 3,512 3,503 3,394 3,380
446 Health & personal care stores……………….. 21,094 21,019 20,887 20,284 20,089
44611 Pharmacies & drug stores…………………… (*) 17,469 17,316 16,798 16,637
447 Gasoline stations………………………….. 26,479 27,107 28,001 41,632 41,379
448 Clothing & clothing accessories stores……….. 17,337 17,427 17,940 18,551 18,660
44811 Men's clothing stores……………………… (*) (S) (S) (S) (S)
44812 Women's clothing stores……………………. (*) 2,918 2,947 3,292 3,246
4482 Shoe stores………………………………. (*) 2,164 2,224 2,293 2,222
451 Sporting goods, hobby, book & music stores……. 7,268 7,243 7,305 7,392 7,366
452 General merchandise stores………………….. 49,784 49,857 50,122 49,794 49,442
4521 Department stores (ex. L.D.)……………….. 15,903 15,939 16,020 16,941 16,921
4521 Department stores (incl. L.D.)(5)…………… (*) (NA) (NA) (NA) (NA)
4529 Other general merchandise stores……………. (*) 33,918 34,102 32,853 32,521
45291 Warehouse clubs & supercenters…………….. (*) 30,086 30,209 29,096 28,813
45299 All other gen. merchandise stores………….. (*) 3,832 3,893 3,757 3,708
453 Miscellaneous store retailers……………….. 9,624 9,634 9,643 9,912 9,805
454 Nonstore retailers…………………………. 23,602 23,636 23,925 25,607 24,782
4541 Electronic shopping & mail-order houses……… (*) 16,933 16,948 17,412 16,803
722 Food services & drinking places……………… 38,161 38,093 38,549 37,618 37,224
(*) Advance estimates are not available for this kind of business.
(NA) Not available (S) Suppressed (a) Advance estimate (p) Preliminary estimate (r) Revised estimate
(1) For a full description of the NAICS codes used in this table, see http://www.census.gov/epcd/www/naics.html
(2) Estimates are concurrently adjusted for seasonal variation and for holiday and trading day differences, but not for price changes. Concurrent seasonal adjustment uses all available unadjusted estimates as input to the X-12 ARIMA program. The factors derived from the program are used in calculating all seasonally adjusted estimates shown in this table. Year-to-date seasonally adjusted sales estimates are not tabulated.
(3) Advance estimates are based on early reports obtained from a small sample of firms selected from the larger Monthly Retail Trade Survey (MRTS) sample.
All other estimates are from the MRTS sample.
(4) GAFO represents firms which specialize in department store types of merchandise and is comprised of furniture & home furnishings (442), electronics & appliances (443),
clothing & clothing accessories (448), sporting goods, hobby, book, and music (451), general merchandise (452), office supply, stationery, and gift stores (4532).
(5) Estimates include data for leased departments operated within department stores. Data for this line are not included in broader kind-of-business totals.
