Dive Brief:
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The U.S. Department of Commerce reported Friday that core retail sales (which excludes sales of cars, gas, building materials, and food) rose .4% in August. July core retail sales also rose .4%, revised up from a more or less flat .1%.
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In August, retail clothing store sales rose .3%, sporting goods sales rose .9%, electronics and appliance store sales rose .7%, and building materials and garden store sales rose 1.4%. Non-store sales, including e-commerce, rose .1%.
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The numbers were backed up by figures from payment solutions vendor First Data’s SpendTrend report, which tracked point-of-sales information from some 4 million U.S. retailers. First Data said that healthy back-to-school shopping and late-summer vacations helped boost August retail sales.
Dive Insight:
Retail sales have been a dim spot in the otherwise healthier economic picture lately, but these figures brighten things as retailers head into the holiday shopping season. Despite food costs rising, inflation fears are also ebbing somewhat as gas prices fall and wages stay stagnant. That last detail, however, does have the potential to dampen retail sales.