Washington – Retail sales at CE and appliance specialty stores
fell an estimated 3.1 percent year over year in March, the U.S. Commerce
Department reported.
But last month’s $8.3 billion haul was 1 percent higher than
February’s take, the agency said.
By comparison, total retail sales rose 6.5 percent to $367.8
billion in March, and ticked up 0.8 percent from February.
The figures are adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and
trading-day differences, but not for price changes.
Earlier this month
reported mid- to high-single-digit comp-store gains in March, but
continued weakness in their CE businesses.