Retail Sales? Not Good At All

The chart provided at this link tells the tale.

Remember this when reading the chart:  month-over-month inflation was roughly 5%.  So when you see that dollar-denominated sales are down by (say) 1%, that means that UNIT sales were off 5%+1%, or SIX percent.  Six percent less whatsits were sold in March than in February.

That's a large number.

But it's roughly consistent with the historical trend.  Look at retail sales Feb 22/Feb 23, and you'll notice that the dollar-denominated sales number was up only 4.5%, while inflation as a whole (in 2022) was up 8%.  So inflation was 8% year-over-year, and retail sales were up only 2.9% year-over-year.

Houston, we have a problem.  That's a net FIVE percent drop in whatsits-sold.

Biden-conomy, your name is Ugly.