According to the Department of Commerce’s advance monthly estimates, sales at furniture and home goods businesses slowed in September after three months of a discernible reduction in the year-over-year gap.
Adjusted sales for the category totaled $11.058 billion for the month, a 2.3% decrease from September 2023’s $11.315 billion and a 1.4% decline from August’s $11.22 billion.
Its nine-month total of $98.511 billion, however, is still 5.1% less than the sum from the previous year.
Looking at the entire retail spectrum, the category reported adjusted sales of $714.358 billion in September, up 1.7% from $702.16 billion the previous year and 0.4% from $711.291 billion in August. Sales for the overall retail category came to $6.28 trillion for the year, a 2.6% increase.
Gas stations reported a 10.7% year-over-year loss, while sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument, and book stores had a 3.5% decline, and electronics and appliance stores saw a 4.6% decline from September 2023’s pace.
Dealers of garden tools, building materials, and supplies had a half-point increase in sales compared to the previous year.
A subsample of the whole retail and food services sample from the U.S. Census Bureau serves as the basis for the DOC’s advance estimates. About 5,500 retail and food services companies are chosen using a stratified random sampling technique, and their revenues are subsequently weighted and compared to the total of over 3 million retail and food services companies.
