Please consider the Advance Retail and Food Services Sales report for April 2024.

Retail Sales Key Points

Advance Estimates of U.S. Retail and Food Services Advance sales for April 2024, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $705.2 billion, virtually unchanged from the previous month, but up 3.0 percent above April 2023.

Total sales for the February 2024 through April 2024 period were up 3.0 percent from the same period a year ago.

The February 2024 to March 2024 percent change was revised from up 0.7 percent to up 0.6 percent.

Retail trade sales were virtually unchanged om March 2024, but up 2.7 percent above last year.

Nonstore retailers were up 7.5 percent from last year, while food services and drinking places were up 5.5 percent from April 2023.

The key phrase is "adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes.". Adjusted for inflation (real) sales are much lower than three years ago.

Real Retail Sales Detail Millions of Dollars

Real retail sales are down 3.6 percent from April of 2021, three years ago.

But if we ignore the spike peak, real sales have been flat since July of 2021. Every time it appears customers were about to throw in the towel, they instead opened their wallets, or charge cards.

This is not strong spending as typically portrayed by mainstream media.