Sales of retail and food services nudged up 0.2 percent in January after declines in November and especially December, where a drop of 1.2 percent was revised to 1.6 percent in the seasonally adjusted data released by the Commerce Department on March 11.
Americans spent more than $504 billion on retail in January, the department reported, adjusting the data for the expected drop in sales coming every January after the holiday shopping season. That’s up from the more than $503 billion the month before (pdf).
