U.S. Retail Sales Jump 1.2% in August, Rebounding From July Decline

U.S. retail and food-services sales rose 1.2% in August from the previous month to a seasonally adjusted $773.9 billion, rebounding after a revised decline in July, the U.S. Census Bureau reported Wednesday.

Sales were 6.0% higher than in August 2025. The Census Bureau also revised July’s monthly change to a 0.5% decline from the previously reported 0.6% drop, with July sales now estimated at $764.5 billion. August sales were therefore about $9.5 billion above July’s revised level and roughly $5.4 billion above June.

The Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services report measures dollar sales and is adjusted for seasonal variation as well as holiday and trading-day differences. It is not adjusted for price changes, so the figures should not be read as a direct measure of inflation-adjusted consumer spending or the physical volume of goods sold.

Nonstore retailers and gasoline stations posted strong gains

The August increase was spread across most of the major categories in the advance report. Nonstore retailers, a group that includes electronic shopping and mail-order businesses, recorded a 2.6% monthly increase. Their sales were 9.9% above August 2025 levels.

Gasoline-station sales rose 3.1% from July and were 21.0% higher than a year earlier. Because the Census figures are reported in current dollars, changes in fuel prices can affect the value of gasoline-station sales as well as changes in the quantity purchased. The report itself does not separate those effects.

Electronics and appliance stores increased sales 1.6% for the month, while miscellaneous store retailers rose 1.9%. Sporting-goods, hobby, musical-instrument and book stores gained 1.2%, and food-services and drinking places also increased 1.2%. Health and personal-care stores rose 0.9%, furniture and home-furnishings stores gained 0.9%, clothing and clothing-accessories stores increased 0.7%, and general-merchandise stores were up 0.7%.

Some categories lagged the broader increase. Building-material and garden-equipment dealers declined 0.2% from July. Department-store sales fell 0.8%, even as the broader general-merchandise category increased. Food and beverage stores rose 0.4%, including a 0.5% gain at grocery stores.

Motor-vehicle and parts dealers posted a 0.6% monthly increase after a revised 1.8% decline in July. Excluding motor vehicles and parts, total retail and food-services sales rose 1.4% in August. Excluding gasoline stations, sales increased 1.1%. Removing both motor vehicles and gasoline stations still left a 1.2% monthly gain, indicating that the headline increase was not confined to either autos or fuel.

August more than reversed July’s decline

The rebound followed a July that was weaker than initially estimated in level terms but slightly less negative in percentage terms. July sales were revised to $764.462 billion from the earlier advance estimate of $763.6 billion, while the month-over-month change was revised to negative 0.5% from negative 0.6%. June sales stand at a revised $768.587 billion.

That sequence puts August sales above both July and June. The monthly pattern is important because a single rebound can look larger when it follows a decline. At the same time, the year-over-year comparison shows that the August level was not simply a return to the prior month’s range: total retail and food-services sales were 6.0% above August 2025, and sales for the June-through-August period were also 6.0% higher than in the same three months a year earlier.

Several categories showed sizable annual gains. Miscellaneous store retailers were up 14.0% from August 2025, sporting-goods and related stores rose 10.7%, and nonstore retailers gained 9.9%. Electronics and appliance stores were up 7.8%. Food-services and drinking places increased 5.8%, while clothing stores rose 4.3%.

The annual figures also show where growth was more modest. Food and beverage stores increased 0.5% from a year earlier, the same rate reported for grocery stores. Furniture and home-furnishings stores were up 1.9%, and motor-vehicle and parts dealers increased 2.1%. Those differences underline that the overall 6.0% annual increase was not distributed evenly across retail industries.

The advance estimate will be revised

The August report is an advance estimate based on a subsample of the Census Bureau’s larger retail survey. Census says the advance survey uses a probability sample of about 4,800 retail and food-services firms, with the results weighted and benchmarked to represent a universe of more than three million firms. Preliminary and later estimates can change as additional responses and information become available.

Sampling uncertainty also matters when reading the monthly figures. Census reported a margin of sampling error of plus or minus 0.4 percentage point for the 1.2% August increase and plus or minus 0.5 percentage point for the 6.0% year-over-year increase, both at a 90% confidence level. The agency marks changes whose confidence intervals include zero when there is insufficient statistical evidence to conclude that the actual change differs from zero.

The report also notes a planned historical revision to monthly retail sales estimates using corrections and results from the 2023 and 2024 Annual Integrated Economic Survey. Revised not-seasonally-adjusted estimates and corresponding adjusted estimates are tentatively scheduled for September 28. Those revisions can alter historical levels and monthly comparisons without changing the fact that the September 16 release is the current advance reading for August.

The next Advance Monthly Retail Trade report, covering September 2026, is scheduled for October 15 at 8:30 a.m. Eastern Time. That release will provide the first update on whether the August rebound carried into September and will also include revised estimates for prior months where applicable.