August was down slightly to July and up 2.0% to August 2015. This was a slight miss and many of the recurring themes of growth and decline remained the same.
The top 3 growth businesses were internet retailers, health stores and restaurants/bars:
- Non-store/online retailers posted a record 10.9% gain over last year. While incredibly healthy, this was the lowest rate of growth in the last 3 months.
- Heath and personal care stores posted the second straight month with a 7.8% year over year monthly gain
- Restaurants picking up a 5.0% gain and the 3rd spot. This is surprising as many Restaurants have posted disappointing comps recently.
On the downside, the bottom 3 (excluding gasoline) remained the same:
- Department Stores multi-decade decline continued with a return to monthly declines of 5.0% or more
- The Electronics vacuum of sales to online continues with a decline of 3.1%. No surprise here as Non-store's gain is usually electronics' loss.
- Misc stores and Clothing & Clothing accessories stores saw a decline of 0.4% and 0.3% respectively
The Non-store (online) continues to steal the show and shows no signs of slowing with grocery now picking up the move to online. Additionally, Grocer growth has been outpaced by restaurant and bar spending for the 10th consecutive month.
July Retail Sales can be found here.
June Retail Sales can be found here.
May Retail Sales can be found here.
April Retail Sales can be found here.
March Retail Sales can be found here.
February Retail Sales can be found here.
January Retail Sales can be found here.
December Retail Sales can be found here.