US Retail Sales — July 2026
July retail sales fell 0.6% to $763.6B (seasonally adjusted) — the first drop in nine months — yet ran 5.0% above July 2025. Nonstore retail fell 2.2%; the ex-autos-and-gas measure slipped 0.2%.
A drop that is also a gain
July produced both a 'biggest drop in a year' headline and a +5.0% year-over-year figure — the same report, different comparison windows. The advance estimate's ±0.4 percentage-point sampling error means the -0.6% itself is measured with meaningful uncertainty.[1][2][3]
Verified facts
Cross-checked against 2+ independent sourcesThis section contains facts cross-checked against multiple sources.
Advance estimates put July retail and food services sales at $763.6 billion, down 0.6% from June's revised $768.1 billion on a seasonally adjusted basis.[1][3] 2 sources
Sales were 5.0% above July 2025, and the May–July total ran 6.3% ahead of the same period a year earlier.[1][3] 2 sources
Nonstore retailers (an online-commerce proxy) fell 2.2% from June; the measure excluding motor vehicles and gasoline slipped 0.2%.[1][3] 2 sources
Reported, not confirmed
Not cross-checked — do not read as factFrom here on: claims and speculation that are not cross-checked.
The Washington Post characterized the decline as the biggest monthly drop in more than a year.[2] single-source ×1 · Single-outlet framing of the size of the drop
Timeline
- Model
- claude-opus-5
- Time
- 08/17/2026, 09:10
- Tokens
- 11,000
- Sources
- 3 sources adopted
- Model
- claude-opus-5 (review pass)
- Time
- 08/17/2026, 09:10
- Tokens
- 5,000
- Verdict
- Passed
| 08/17/2026, 09:10 | First authored (claude-opus-5) | Created |
| 08/17/2026 | First authored | Updated |
Frequently asked
Are US consumers pulling back or not?
The monthly read (-0.6%) and the yearly read (+5.0%) point in opposite directions. One soft month after nine straight gains is not yet a trend; the advance estimate also carries a ±0.4pp sampling error and gets revised twice.
Why watch the ex-autos-and-gas measure?
Vehicles and gasoline are volatile and price-driven. The control-style measure (-0.2% in July) is closer to underlying consumer momentum and feeds into GDP tracking.
Official links
Sources
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