Apr 14, 2009

Retail sales drop 1.3% in MarchBy Jack KatzanekPE.com

After two encouraging months of small increases, retail sales declined nationally in March, indicating many consumers are still not willing to shop for substantial purchases.

The U.S. Commerce Department reported Tuesday that retail sales declined 1.3 percent from February, considerably worse than the 0.3 percent economists had anticipated. The decrease wiped out much of a combined increase of slightly more than 2 percent in January and February, which had been the first upticks in six months.

Automobile sales showed one of the sharpest drops, but the Commerce Department also reported big declines for furniture and appliance sales. Those sectors draw a lot of consumers when there’s a robust housing market but they have been struggling in Inland Southern California since home prices began collapsing more than two years ago.

The government does not break down sales regionally, but if it did, it would likely show weaker numbers than a 1.3 percent drop, said Rob Sorge, manager of Angelus Furniture in Corona.

“It keeps getting progressively funkier,” Sorge said. “It’s not getting horrendously worse, but it seems stuck at a plateau.”

Sorge said there was a sales surge in the first part of the winter, but he attributed that to people who were expecting income tax refunds and filed their returns early. In March and early April, he said, consumers who have yet to file are figuring they owe the IRS money and are less likely to buy furniture.

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