Following months of growth that bucked the trend, the impact of rampant inflation on U.S. consumers’ wallets has finally made a slight, but noticeable dent at the cash register.
New data released by the U.S. Census Bureau and the National Retail Federation (NRF) reflects slowing growth from month to month. While both organizations — which use differing methodology in their calculations — show year-over-year growth versus 2021, the Census says that retail sales in May fell 0.3% from April while the NRF says that movement was flat.
“Retail sales are reflecting Americans’ growing concern about inflation and its impact on the cost of everything from groceries to gas,” says NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay. “Retailers are doing what they can to keep prices down, but we continue our call on the administration to repeal unnecessary and costly tariffs on goods from China to relieve pressure on American consumers and their family budgets.”
For the first five months of 2022, NRF says that U.S. retail sales spiked 7.3% over the same period last year.
Unfortunately, as the U.S. and Global toy industries have seen in recent months, much of the dollar growth is directly related to higher selling prices as unit sales taper off.
