Company News

A Rebound at Retail

Store sales made slight gains last month.

Author Image

By: TOM BRANNA

Editor

Who needs QE3? Falling gasoline prices, aggressive promotions and warmer weather combined to boost consumer spending in June as retail sales rose across the board in the apparel specialty store, department store and general merchandise store categories, according to a Commerce Department report Thursday.


June apparel and accessories specialty store sales rose a seasonally adjusted 0.7% to $18.8 billion compared with May, while sales at department stores rose 1.4% to $15.6 billion. Sales at general merchandise stores, which include discounters and department stores, increased 0.4% to $52.4 billion last month.

The government report followed better-than-expected comparable-store sales reports from retailers earlier this month.

Compared with a year earlier, apparel and accessories store sales gained 6.5%, as department stores posted a 0.8% sales increase and general merchandise store sales were 4% higher.

Overall retail sales unexpectedly rose 0.1% after falling 0.1% in May, beating economists’ expectations of a slight decline.

Keep Up With Our Content. Subscribe To Happi Newsletters