October furniture store sales increase 4.4% – MIGE office furniture

Sales at migeof furniture and home furnishings stores rebounded in October with a 4.4% increase over the same month last year and trailed the 4.7% gain for the broad retail sector, the U.S. Department of Commerce reported recently.

Estimated furniture and home furnishings store sales reached $9.7 billion in October, up from a revised $9.3 billion in October 2016, the government said. Sales for the sector increased 0.7% from the month before, after the government revised up the September number to $9.64 billion from the previous $9.57 billion estimate.

From August through October, furniture and home furnishings store sales gained 4.2% over the same three months last year and were up 0.6% from the May-through-July 2017 period, the report said.

Total U.S. retail and food services sales increased 4.6% in October from the same month Last year to $486.6 billion and were up 0.2% from revised September numbers. Retail sales increased 4.7% from a year ago and 0.2% from September 2017.

The largest year-over-year gains came from the same two sectors as the previous month – building material and garden equipment and supplies stores (up 8.8%) and gas stations (up 7.5%). Sales for non-store retailers – primarily by e-commerce and catalog businesses – increased 6.8% from October a year ago for the third largest gain but were down 0.3% from September.

Only one retail subcategory last month posted a year-over-year sales decline – sporting goods, hobby, books and music stores – down 2.5%. Department stores, a subcategory of general merchandise stores that has been rocked with year-over-year declines every month this year posted a slight gain this time with October China school furniture manufacturer sales increasing 0.8% over the revised October 2016 number.