Retail sales up 0.3% in November, showing how Americans continue to spend

NEW YORK (AP) — Americans picked up their spending from October to November as the unofficial holiday season kicked off, underscoring that shoppers still have power to keep buying.

Retail sales rose 0.3%, in November from October, when sales were down a revised 0.2% according to the Commerce Department on Thursday. Economists were expecting sales to decline again. Excluding car and gas sales, sales rose 0.6%.

Business at restaurants rose 1.6%, while sales at furniture stores rose 0.9%. Online sales rose 1%. Electronic and appliance sales, however, fell1.1% Sales at department stores fell 2.5%. The figures aren’t adjusted for inflation.

The urge to spend for Americans appears to have some running room, even after a blowout summer. Consumer spending jumped in the July-September quarter. Economists have been expecting spending to slow in the final three months of the year as credit card debt and delinquencies rise, and savings fall.

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U.S. employment data last week showed that employers added 199,000 jobs in November and the unemployment rate declined to 3.7%. Inflation has plummeted in little over a year from a troubling 9.1%, to 3.2%. While that’s still above the desired level, the economy by most counts is likely to avoid the recession many economists had feared, a potential side effect of U.S. attempts to cool inflation.

Yet people remain gloomy, according to the University of Michigan’s Index of Consumer Sentiment. The preliminary December figures issued Friday showed moods have improved as more people see inflation cooling.

The pullback in spending, however, is hitting home for some companies that rely on the holiday shopping season heavily.

Hasbro Inc., which makes Monopoly, Play-Doh and My Little Pony toys, said this week it will cut 20% of its workforce, about 1,100 jobs. Hasbro had already cut 800 jobs this year under a plan launched in 2022 to cut $300 million in annual costs by 2025.

In the most recent quarter, retailers including Walmart and Macy’s reported that shoppers were being more selective in what they were buying as the holiday shopping season approached.

Walmart attracted shoppers looking for deals in a tough economic environment, but its expectations going forward were muted. Sales at Target slid even though the chain did better than many industry watchers had expected.

Sales fell at Home Depot as well as customers put off larger home renovations and purchases of big-ticket items like appliances and other goods often bought with credit cards.

Yet the National Retail Federation, the nation’s largest retail trade group, still expects shoppers will spend more during the 2023 winter holidays than last year.

The group forecast in November that U.S. holiday sales will rise 3% to 4% for November through December. That is slower than the 5.4% growth over the same period a year ago, but more consistent with the average annual holiday increase of 3.6% from 2010 to pre-pandemic 2019.

Retailers still have six of the top 10 busiest days of the season ahead of them, including Dec. 26, according to Sensormatic Solutions, which tracks store traffic. On average, the top 10 busiest shopping days in the U.S. account for roughly 40% of all holiday retail traffic, it said.

The government’s monthly retail sales report offers only a partial look at consumer spending; it doesn’t include many services, including health care, travel and hotel lodging.