Retail Sales
Retail sales measures total receipts at US retail stores and food-service establishments — autos, gas, groceries, e-commerce, restaurants, and more. Reported monthly by the Census Bureau in nominal dollars, it is the timeliest broad read on consumer spending, which drives roughly two-thirds of GDP.
Latest reading
As of June 2026, Retail Sales (Retail Sales YoY %) stands at 6.7% — down from 7.3% the prior reading. Strong, accelerating sales signal consumer confidence and economic momentum; weakness flags a pullback. Because the data is nominal, adjust for inflation to gauge real spending — rising dollar sales during high inflation can mask falling volumes. The "control group" (ex autos, gas, building materials, and food services) feeds directly into GDP and is the cleaner trend signal. Series history runs from 1992 to present.
Sources, methodology & freshnessLast updated 2026-07-24 · Open ↓Close ↑
Retail Sales YoY %
- Monthly sales ($B)
- $769B
Next release: Aug 14, 2026
Full history
Year-over-year %
Sales level ($)
Total US retail and food-services sales each month, in dollars — the dollar volume behind the year-over-year rate. Not adjusted for inflation.
Methodology & data
Retail Sales is sourced from Census via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (Census Bureau via FRED (RSAFS), monthly, seasonally adjusted). We pull the complete history, chart it on a monthly basis, overlay SPY for context, and generate a dated plain-English reading from the latest release — with no smoothing or adjustment beyond what the chart legend states.
Every reading is stamped with its release date, last updated 2026-07-24. Maintained and reviewed by Yuriy Matso; see our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
Frequently asked questions
What is the Retail Sales?
Retail sales measures total receipts at US retail stores and food-service establishments — autos, gas, groceries, e-commerce, restaurants, and more. Reported monthly by the Census Bureau in nominal dollars, it is the timeliest broad read on consumer spending, which drives roughly two-thirds of GDP.
How do you read Retail Sales?
Strong, accelerating sales signal consumer confidence and economic momentum; weakness flags a pullback. Because the data is nominal, adjust for inflation to gauge real spending — rising dollar sales during high inflation can mask falling volumes. The "control group" (ex autos, gas, building materials, and food services) feeds directly into GDP and is the cleaner trend signal.
Where does the Retail Sales data come from?
Census Bureau via FRED (RSAFS), monthly, seasonally adjusted. We chart the full history and publish a dated, plain-English reading with every release; the raw series is downloadable as CSV at /data/indicators/retail-sales.csv.
How often is Retail Sales updated?
Retail Sales is a monthly series from Census, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.
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