Last week, the U.S. Census Bureau released the June 2020 U.S. Retail Sales Report which showed great signs of resurgence for the overall Retail sector. Last month, the United States saw the highest single-month increase in retail sales in history. After being down nearly 14% in April 2020, May 2020 saw a historically significant increase in Retail sales. This nearly brought us back to pre-pandemic levels in just 31 days. Experts thought this was just a quick bounce-back leading to a plateau in the coming months. However, American resiliency shone through again.
In June of 2020, retail sales jumped another 7.5%, bringing the current level up to $476.88 Billion. This current level is the highest US Retail Sales numbers we have ever seen. Obviously, the “Pandemic Numbers” can seem skewed because of the extreme fluctuation, however, these numbers are up nearly 5% from June 2019! Even in a normal year, this Year-Over-Year (YOY) increase would be amazing, but especially with the hurdles this year has provided, even the most optimistic economist’s projections didn’t forecast numbers anywhere close to these sales numbers.
Some of the most improved sales changes in June include Clothing stores sales up 105%,
Electronics & Appliances sales up 37%, and Food Service & Drink Establishments sales rising 20%. As the state economies across the country continue to open more and more each day, the pent-up demand should continue to bode well for restaurants and shopping centers. Plus, industrial facilities that either store or manufacture goods for these businesses will see an increase in use as a result of the demand.
Keywords: Restaurants and Shopping Centers, Industrial Facilities, Retail Storefront, Commercial Real Estate