U.S. retail sales rose by 1.7% in October, more than double the 0.8% growth in sales from September.
The country’s biggest growth areas were gasoline sales (+47% YoY), restaurants and bars (+29% YoY), clothing stores (+25.8%) and online shopping (+10.2% YoY.)
As you can imagine, inflation can be faulted for a portion of this sales growth. However, higher inflation isn’t scaring off shoppers as we roll into Q4.
The release of the latest report dropped alongside several retailers today, including Home Depot and Walmart. Both demonstrated higher sales, in support of the retail sales report.
Walmart observed developing supply-chain pressures as we veer into Q4, the busiest shopping szn of them all — Walmart insists that the company will fight inflation and keep shelves stocked.
Overall, retail sales grew in spite of sky-high savings and inflation. That suggests lessened concerns about the pandemic and inflation, but we’ll still keep an eye on retailers as we approach the holidays.