LBM dealers get sales boost against national odds in December

The U.S. Census Bureau has reported a slight dip in retail sales activity for the U.S. in December, though building material and garden equipment & supplies dealers saw their coffers rise.

Advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $448.1 billion, down 0.1% over November.

However, this figure is still 2.2% above December 2014.

As for building material and garden equipment and supplies dealers (NAICS 444), advance December estimates came in at $28.2 billion, up from November's haul of just shy of $28.0 billion. That's up 0.7% for the month and 4.2% for the year.

Only furniture and home furnishings stores, plus sporting goods, hobby, book &music stores (both up 0.9%), as well as food services and drinking places (0.8%) saw larger monthly increases.

Total retail trade sales were down 0.2% from the previous month, but up 1.6% from last year.