Furniture and home furnishings segment outpaces flat July for retail

Washginton — Furniture and home furnishings sales rose slightly in July in what was a flat month overall for retail, according to advance monthly estimates from the Department of Commerce.

The furniture and home furnishings category recorded an adjusted $12.122 billion in July, up 0.2% from  June’s $12.1 billion. But while sales in the category were relatively flat month-to-month, they were up 2.1% from July 2021’s $11.873 billion. For the year-to-date, furniture and home furnishings sales are at $81.913 billion.

In the overall snapshot, the full retail spectrum came in at $682.815 billion in July, which was basically even with June’s $682.585 billion. Year-over-year, retail was up 10.3% compared with July 2021’s $619.180 billion.

Very few categories recorded substantial growth in July, but non-store retailers led the way with a 2.7% increase vs. June. Building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers and miscellaneous store retailers were both up 1.5% month-to-month.

Those gains were offset by a few notable losses. Gas station sales declined 1.8% as prices dropped, while motor vehicle and parts dealers saw their sales drop by 1.6%. General merchandise stores were down 0.7%, and clothing and clothing accessories stores sales fell 0.6%.

The DOC’s advance estimates are based on a sub-sample of the U.S. Census Bureau’s full retail and food services sample. A stratified random sampling method is used to select approximately 5,500 retail and food services firms whose sales are then weighted and benchmarked to represent the complete universe of more than 3 million retail and food services firms.

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