Advance Retail Sales (ex Food Services)
Advance Retail Sales is the early estimate of monthly retail trade, excluding food services, built from a subsample of firms and released roughly two weeks after the reference month. It is one of the first hard reads on consumer spending each month, which is why surprises here often move markets.
Latest reading
As of April 2026, Retail Sales (Advance) (Retail Sales YoY %) stands at 5.2% — up from 4.3% the prior reading. Watch the month-over-month change for momentum and the year-over-year rate for trend; the ex-autos/gas/building-materials control group gives the cleanest signal. Advance estimates are routinely revised as fuller data arrives, so weigh single prints accordingly, and deflate by CPI to separate real spending from price effects. Series history runs from 1993 to present.
Retail Sales YoY %
Next release: Jun 17, 2026
Full history
How to read it
Watch the month-over-month change for momentum and the year-over-year rate for trend; the ex-autos/gas/building-materials control group gives the cleanest signal. Advance estimates are routinely revised as fuller data arrives, so weigh single prints accordingly, and deflate by CPI to separate real spending from price effects.
Methodology & data
Retail Sales (Advance) is sourced from Census via the Federal Reserve's FRED service (Census Bureau via FRED (RSXFS), 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 2026-06-09. See our methodology for the standards every series on the site is held to.
- Category
- Growth
- Frequency
- Monthly
- Source
- Census
Related indicators
Frequently asked questions
What is the Advance Retail Sales (ex Food Services)?
Advance Retail Sales is the early estimate of monthly retail trade, excluding food services, built from a subsample of firms and released roughly two weeks after the reference month. It is one of the first hard reads on consumer spending each month, which is why surprises here often move markets.
How do you read Retail Sales (Advance)?
Watch the month-over-month change for momentum and the year-over-year rate for trend; the ex-autos/gas/building-materials control group gives the cleanest signal. Advance estimates are routinely revised as fuller data arrives, so weigh single prints accordingly, and deflate by CPI to separate real spending from price effects.
Where does the Retail Sales (Advance) data come from?
Census Bureau via FRED (RSXFS), 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-advance.csv.
How often is Retail Sales (Advance) updated?
Retail Sales (Advance) is a monthly series from Census, refreshed here as soon as a new release posts to FRED.