Washington — Furniture and home furnishings retail channel sales showed their smallest year-over-year decline of the year in June according to the Department of Commerce’s advance monthly estimates.
For the month, the category recorded an estimated adjusted $11.084 billion in sales, which was down 4.0% compared with $11.550 billion in June 2023. The month’s figures were up 0.6% compared with the revised $11.013 billion in May.
Through the first six months of the year, the DOC estimates that furniture and home furnishings have totaled $64.392 billion in sales, off 2023’s pace by 7%. But June’s performance enabled the category to improve its positioning, as it was down 7.9% YOY in May.
While still not what the industry wants to see, June’s four-point drop compares favorably when stacked up against May (down 6.8%), April (down 8.4%), March (down 6.1%), February (down 10.1%) and January (down 9.8%).
The DOC’s overall retail snapshot for June encompasses an estimated adjusted $704.324 billion in sales, up 2.3% vs. $688.630 in June 2023 but essentially flat against May’s $704.483 billion.
While furniture/home furnishings had its most favorable YOY month, its 4% decline was the sharpest among the DOC’s measured categories. Sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book stores were off the pace by 3.4% with motor vehicle and parts dealers down 2.2% and building material, garden equipment and supplies dealers showing a 0.9% slip in sales.
The DOC’s advance estimates are based on a sub-sample of the U.S. Census Bureau’s full retail and food services sample. A stratified random sampling method is used to select approximately 5,500 retail and food services firms whose sales are then weighted and benchmarked to represent the complete universe of more than 3 million retail and food services firms.