Seasonally adjusted advance estimates of US retail and foodservice sales in January 2012 totaled $404.1 billion, according to the US Census Bureau. This represents a 5.6% increase from $379.3 billion in January 2011 and more modest 0.4% increase from $399.9 million in December 2011.

Excluding motor vehicles and parts, total January 2012 retail and foodservice sales equaled $329.7 million, up 5.5% from $312.5 million in January 2011 and 0.7% from $327.4 million in December 2011. On their own, retail sales amounted to $358.8 million last month, up 5.5% from $339.9 million the prior year and up 0.3% from $357.5 million the prior month.

Strong Building Material Sales Growth Good for Steel Market With an 8.1% jump in sales from a year ago, building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers had the second-highest rate of year-over-year sales increase among the 13 retail categories tracked by the Census Bureau, reporting sales of $26 billion, a 0.2% increase from slightly less than $26 billion in December 2011.

Food services and drinking places edged out building material dealers with an 8.2% year-over-year sales increase, rising from $39.4 billion to $42.6 billion. Month-over-month, a much smaller 0.6% increase from $42.3 billion was recorded.

At the other end of the spectrum, electronics and appliance stores saw their monthly sales drop 0.6% year-over-year, from almost $8.3 billion to $8.2 billion. However, compared to December 2011, sales in the category rose 0.5% from slightly less than $8.2 billion. No other category reported a year-over-year decline in sales.

Source: US Census Bureau