Retail Sales

The U.S. Census Bureau announced today that advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for December, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $353.0 billion, a decrease of 0.3 percent (±0.5%)* from the previous month, but 5.4 percent (±0.5%) above December 2008. Total sales for the 12 months of 2009 were down 6.2 percent (±0.2%) from 2008. Total sales for the October through December 2009 period were up 1.9 percent (±0.3%) from the same period a year ago. The October to November 2009 percent change was revised from +1.3 percent (±0.5%) to +1.8 percent (±0.2%).

Retail trade sales were down 0.2 percent (±0.5%)* from November 2009, but 5.9 percent (±0.5%) above last year. Gasoline stations sales were up 33.6 percent (±1.5%) from December 2008 and nonstore retailers sales were up 10.3 percent (±1.7%) from last year.

The advance estimates are based on a subsample of the Census Bureau's full retail and food services sample. A stratified random sampling method is used to select approximately 5,000 retail and food services firms whose sales are then weighted and benchmarked to represent the complete universe of over three million retail and food services firms. Responding firms account for approximately 65% of the MARTS dollar volume estimate. For an explanation of the measures of sampling variability included in this report, please see the Reliability of Estimates section on the last page of this publication.

Percent Change in Retail and Food Services Sales

(Estimates adjusted for seasonal variation, holiday, and trading-day differences, but not for price changes)

For more information, visit the Census Bureau's Web site at <http://www.census.gov/retail>.

* The 90 percent confidence interval includes zero. The Census Bureau does not have sufficient statistical evidence to conclude that the actual change is different than zero.

Table 1. Estimated Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services, by Kind of Business


(Total sales estimates are shown in millions of dollars and are based on data from the Advance Monthly Retail Trade Survey, Monthly Retail
Trade Survey, and administrative records.)
		Not Adjusted								Adjusted²
NAICS¹	Kind of Business	12 Month Total		2009			2008		2009			2008
code	Kind of Business		% Chg.	Dec.³	Nov.	Oct.	Dec.	Nov.	Dec.³	Nov.	Oct.	Dec.	Nov.
		2009	2008	(a)	(p)	(r)			(a)	(p)	(r)	(r)	(r)

	Retail & food services,
	total ……………………………….	4,139,381	-6.2	409,231	347,175	344,726	387,964	338,788	352,985	353,951	347,641	335,016	345,175
	Total (excl. motor vehicle & parts) …	3,443,815	-4.9	352,419	295,513	287,895	334,459	289,976	293,545	294,025	288,445	278,928	288,233

	Retail …..…………………………….	3,683,124	-7.0	370,945	311,226	306,112	350,138	302,569	315,041	315,789	309,821	297,453	307,210
	GAFO⁴_{………………………....……...……...…………..}	(*)	(*)	(*)	102,736	91,199	136,308	103,191	(*)	94,795	94,335	92,358	94,499

441	Motor vehicle & parts dealers …….	695,566	-12.3	56,812	51,662	56,831	53,505	48,812	59,440	59,926	59,196	56,088	56,942
4411, 4412	Auto & other motor veh. dealers .	618,290	-13.4	50,727	45,771	50,147	47,105	42,565	53,173	53,659	52,842	49,428	50,254
44111	New car dealers ……………….	(*)	(*)	(*)	36,805	40,184	38,596	34,435	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
4413	Auto parts, acc. & tire stores……	(*)	(*)	(*)	5,891	6,684	6,400	6,247	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)

442	Furniture & home furn. stores ……	93,824	-11.1	9,185	8,223	7,672	9,521	8,754	7,764	7,743	7,687	8,069	8,212
4421	Furniture stores …………………..	(*)	(*)	(*)	4,324	4,179	4,542	4,469	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
4422	Home furnishings stores ………..	(*)	(*)	(*)	3,899	3,493	4,979	4,285	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)

443	Electronics & appliance stores ……	102,451	-7.8	13,804	9,944	7,506	13,913	10,325	8,449	8,674	8,435	8,506	9,064
44311, 13	Appl., T.V. & camera………………	(*)	(*)	(*)	7,790	5,825	10,989	8,204	(*)	6,809	6,612	6,644	7,190
44312	Computer & software stores…….	(*)	(*)	(*)	2,154	1,681	2,924	2,121	(*)	1,865	1,823	1,862	1,874

444	Building material & garden eq. &
	supplies dealers…………………….	285,751	-11.6	20,897	21,802	23,268	22,113	23,230	23,343	23,427	22,908	24,784	25,482
4441	Building mat. & sup. dealers ……	(*)	(*)	(*)	18,481	20,081	18,877	19,830	(*)	19,515	19,198	20,698	21,346

445	Food & beverage stores…………….	589,673	0.3	54,161	49,210	49,734	52,275	49,296	49,559	49,946	49,397	48,240	49,343
4451	Grocery stores …………………..	526,308	0.0	46,892	43,865	44,420	45,372	44,062	44,280	44,578	44,111	43,170	44,150
4453	Beer, wine & liquor stores ………	(*)	(*)	(*)	3,459	3,536	4,660	3,548	(*)	3,473	3,477	3,442	3,502

446	Health & personal care stores …….	253,945	3.3	24,235	20,767	21,430	23,123	19,808	21,697	21,520	21,409	20,646	20,720
44611	Pharmacies & drug stores ………	(*)	(*)	(*)	17,279	17,955	19,054	16,403	(*)	17,887	17,777	17,212	17,140

447	Gasoline stations ……………………	361,542	-24.5	32,680	31,728	32,264	24,506	28,049	34,545	34,190	31,203	25,850	30,521

448	Clothing & clothing accessories
	stores …………………………….…..	209,358	-3.1	28,751	18,787	17,394	26,863	18,858	17,461	17,574	17,600	16,628	17,312

44811	Men's clothing stores ……………	(*)	(*)	(*)	762	743	1,165	817	(*)	(S)	(S)	(S)	(S)
44812	Women's clothing stores ………..	(*)	(*)	(*)	3,132	2,976	4,107	3,210	(*)	2,933	2,944	2,905	2,992
44814	Family clothing stores ……………	(*)	(*)	(*)	7,777	7,124	10,633	7,869	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
4482	Shoe stores ………………………	(*)	(*)	(*)	2,125	2,081	2,771	2,181	(*)	2,155	2,141	2,102	2,162

451	Sporting goods, hobby, book &
	music stores…………………………	87,197	-0.6	12,429	7,422	6,366	11,957	7,441	7,411	7,291	7,267	7,084	7,189

452	General merchandise stores……….	594,618	-0.2	70,980	55,296	48,816	69,679	54,778	49,965	50,358	50,099	48,951	49,601
4521	Department stores (ex. L.D.)……..	188,330	-5.8	26,996	18,605	15,011	27,417	19,569	15,737	15,737	15,667	15,923	16,517
4521	Department stores (incl. L.D.)⁵……	(*)	(*)	(*)	19,092	15,453	28,238	20,196	(*)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)	(NA)
4529	Other general merch. stores…. ..	(*)	(*)	(*)	36,691	33,805	42,262	35,209	(*)	34,621	34,432	33,028	33,084
45291	Warehouse clubs &
	supercenters………………….	(*)	(*)	(*)	32,360	29,801	37,058	31,197	(*)	30,644	30,440	29,505	29,403
45299	All oth. gen. merch. stores……	(*)	(*)	(*)	4,331	4,004	5,204	4,012	(*)	3,977	3,992	3,523	3,681

453	Miscellaneous store retailers ……..	114,252	-2.8	11,572	9,334	9,935	10,974	9,065	9,625	9,722	9,612	9,242	9,427

454	Nonstore retailers …………………..	294,947	-0.9	35,439	27,051	24,896	31,709	24,153	25,782	25,418	25,008	23,365	23,397
4541	Elect. shopping & m/o houses ….	(*)	(*)	(*)	19,936	17,766	23,654	16,993	(*)	18,494	18,092	16,658	16,261

722	Food services & drinking places …	456,257	0.7	38,286	35,949	38,614	37,826	36,219	37,944	38,162	37,820	37,563	37,965

(*) 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/eos/www/naics

(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. Adjustment factors and explanatory material can be found
on the Internet at http://www.census.gov/retail

(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 & 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.

Note: Table 3 provides estimated measures of sampling variability. Additional information on confidentiality protection, sampling error, nonsampling error,
sample design, and definitions may be found at http://www.census.gov/retail


Source:	U.S. Census Bureau
	Service Sector Statistics Division

	Last revised: January 14, 2010

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