by Sales also fell .7% from March, further highlighting competition from other areas such as travel and dining out
WASHINGTON — Year-over-year sales at furniture and home furnishings stores fell 6.4% in April, which represented among the poorest performing sectors in the U.S. government’s tracking of retail and food services sales for the month.
Total furniture store sales were $11.4 billion, compared to $12.2 billion in April 2022. Sales were also down slightly from revised March sales of $11.5 billion, a .7% decrease.
Overall retail sales totaled $686.1 billion, up 1.6% from the $675.3 billion reported for April 2022, and up .4% from the $683.2 billion reported in March.
The only other sector to perform worse than furniture store sales were gasoline stations, where sales fell 14.6% to $54.6 billion, from $63.9 billion, and electronics and appliance stores, which fell 7.3% to $7.6 billion from $8.3 billion in April 2022.
The best performing sectors in the month of April included restaurants and bars, which rose 9.4% to $88.1 billion, from $80.5 billion; non-store retailers including e-commerce platforms and catalog businesses, which rose 8% to $112.6 billion, from $104.3 billion; health and personal care stores, which rose 7.9% to $35.6 billion, from $32.9 billion; and general merchandise stores, including department stores, which rose 4.3% to $73.5 billion, from $70.5 billion.
Also seeing an increase in April year over year were food and beverage stores, which rose 3.7% to $81.8 billion, from $78.9 billion in April 2022, and miscellaneous store retailers, which rose 2.6% to $15.6 billion, from $15.2 billion
Other segments seeing a decline in April included sports goods, hobby, musical instrument and bookstores, which fell 5.4% to $8.3 billion from $8.7 billion; building materials and garden and equipment supply dealers, which fell 3.7% to $41.5 billion from $43.1 billion; and clothing and clothing accessories stores, which fell 2.3% to $25.5 billion, from $26.1 billion. Motor vehicle and parts dealer sales fell .5% to $130 billion, from $130.6 billion in April 2022.
Lower furniture sales occur as consumers divert their attention to other forms of spending such as travel, concerts and other forms of entertainment. People are also dining out more, as seen in the latest numbers.
Thus limits their ability to spend on furniture even though many stores have been offering goods at lower prices to clear out excess inventory. Prices also have come down because of significant declines in transportation costs, including container rates that are now a fraction of what they were during the height of the pandemic.
