Federal Reserve Economic Data

Release Tables

Advance Monthly Sales for Retail and Food Services by Kind of Business, Millions of Dollars, Seasonally Adjusted


The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Advance Monthly Retail Trade and Food Services Survey to provide an early estimate of monthly sales by kind of business for retail and food service firms located in the United States. Each month, questionnaires are mailed to a probability sample of approximately 4,700 employer firms selected from the larger Monthly Retail Trade Survey. Advance sales estimates are computed using a link relative estimator. For each detailed industry, we compute a ratio of current-to previous month weighted sales using data from units for which we have obtained usable responses for both the current and previous month. For each detailed industry, the advance total sales estimates for the current month is computed by multiplying this ratio by the preliminary sales estimate for the previous month (derived from the larger MRTS) at the appropriate industry level. Total estimates for broader industries are computed as the sum of the detailed industry estimates. The link relative estimate is used because imputation is not performed for most nonrespondents in MARTS. For a limited number of nonresponding companies that have influential effects on the estimates, sales may be estimated based on historical performance of that company. The monthly estimates are benchmarked to the annual survey estimates from the Annual Retail Trade Survey once available. The estimates are adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading day differences. Additional information on MARTS and MRTS can be found on the Census Bureau website at: www.census.gov/retail.
Description of the survey as provided by the Census, https://census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf


   

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    Jan 1992    
 
 
    May 2025
Millions of Dollars
Name Period Value Preceding
Period
Year Ago
from Period
Retail Trade and Food Services
May 2025 715,417 721,983 692,635
Retail Trade and Food Services, ex Auto
May 2025 579,615 581,263 560,118
Retail Trade
May 2025 618,055 623,726 600,147
Motor Vehicle and Parts Dealers
May 2025 135,802 140,720 132,517
Auto and Other Motor Vehicles
May 2025 124,160 129,164 121,388
Furniture and Home Furnishings Stores
May 2025 11,752 11,616 10,797
Electronics and Appliance Stores
May 2025 7,605 7,650 7,752
Building Material and Garden Equipment and Supplies Dealers
May 2025 39,682 40,774 40,111
Food and Beverage Stores
May 2025 83,763 84,348 81,982
Grocery Stores
May 2025 75,340 75,914 73,666
Health and Personal Care Stores
May 2025 38,807 38,852 36,028
Gasoline Stations
May 2025 49,778 50,785 53,456
Clothing and Clothing Access. Stores
May 2025 26,175 25,972 25,246
Sporting Goods, Hobby, Book, and Music Stores
May 2025 7,998 7,893 7,859
General Merchandise Stores
May 2025 76,756 76,700 75,079
Department Stores
. . . .
Miscellaneous Store Retailers
May 2025 14,445 14,039 13,434
Nonstore Retailers
May 2025 125,492 124,377 115,886
Food Services and Drinking Places
May 2025 97,362 98,257 92,488
   

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