While it may not have looked like anything special based on the weaker than expected headline reading, there actually wasn’t much not to like about May’s Retail Sales report.  In addition to being slightly better than expected after stripping out Autos and Gas, April’s report was revised significantly higher.

The table below shows monthly streaks of gains or losses for each of the sectors tracked in the Retail Sales report.  Here we can see how broad and consistent the strength has been in Retail Sales after taking revisions into account.  Five sectors have seen m/m growth for five straight months, and no group has seen more than one straight month of decline.   Bars and Restaurants are one group that has seen sales growth for five consecutive months, and while it has yet to overtake Food and Beverage Stores in terms of its total share of sales, it’s getting close.

We just published our monthly update to key trends in this month’s Retail Sales report.  To see the report, sign up for a monthly Bespoke Premium membership now!