NAICS 444 sales spiked in March 2025
Before tariffs kick in, U.S. consumers have been eagerly splashing cash.
That trend is backed by Census Bureau data released today, which shows U.S. retail and food services sales hit $734.9 billion in March 2025. That's up 1.4 percent from the previous month and up a robust 4.6 percent from March 2024. Retail trade sales also rose 1.4 percent from Feb. 2025's numbers, and they're up 4.6 percent from last year.
March's NAICS 444 sales, which include building material suppliers as well as garden equipment and supplies dealers, are up year-over-year and also up (significantly) month-over-month. Unadjusted March 2025 sales for NAICS 444 entities struck $40.333 billion, a far cry from the $31.798 billion registered in Feb. 2025. Year-over-year, March 2025's sales also outstrip March 2024's (unadjusted) sales of $38.696 billion.
Meanwhile, monthly retail sales for hardware stores (NAICS 44413) in February 2025 (the latest data available) dipped to $2.85 billion down from January 2025's mark of $3.05 billion. On a year-over-year basis, hardware store sales are also down slightly from sales of $2.89 billion in Feb. 2024.
Despite several bright spots and rosy early spring sales for some, National Retail Federation Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz tempered expectations moving forward, explaining:
“Retail sales strengthened in March, supported by continued solid growth in income, lower energy costs and bigger-than-usual tax refunds that all helped support household budgets. However, there is no question that the consumer is not feeling great given the confusion of policy announcements from Washington. On-again, off-again rising tariffs and resulting turmoil in the stock market and world economy are clearly impacting consumer concerns about higher prices and future consumer spending growth.”
