WASHINGTON–Retail sales in home furnishings stores inched up in May, but were down notably since the same month a year ago.
The U.S. Commerce Department reported this morning that stores specializing in home products rose 0.4 percent over the month, reaching $9.5 billion. That reflected a drop of 4.9 percent compared with May 2007.
In stores selling appliances and electronics, the May picture was somewhat rosier, as sales rose 0.7 percent monthly and 3.7 percent yearly.
Department stores, including mass merchants, saw their sales grow 0.8 percent since April, but drop 2.6 percent on a year-over-year basis.
Non-store retailers, such as home shopping television stations and the Internet, among others, had the most robust sales among the channels tracked by HFN. Their sales of $27.4 billion reflected a monthly growth of 1.6 percent, and a yearly growth of 10 percent.
Overall retail sales were up 1 percent monthly and 2.2 percent yearly.