Strong numbers for NAICS 444

Looking over the entire retail industry, advance estimates of U.S. retail and food services sales for January 2022, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes, were $649.8 billion. That’s up 3.8 percent from December, and. Up 13.0% from January 2021.

Those numbers are in line with the January performance of NAICS 444, building supply dealers, hardware stores, home centers and garden equipment retailers – up 4.1% month over month (seasonally adjusted) and up 12.7% compared to a year ago.

NAICS 444 sales were estimated at an unadjusted $35.197 billion. A year ago, January’s NAICS 444 sales were an unadjusted $31.229 billion, according to data released Wednesday by the U.S. Census Bureau.

“January’s numbers show that 2022 is starting very strong for consumers and retailers, especially on the heels of a record holiday season and record sales in 2021,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said.

NRF Chief Economist Jack Kleinhenz added more macro-analysis: “January sales overcame major headwinds that make the results all the more impressive,” he said. “A triad of forces weighed on consumer behavior and spending as weather slammed a large portion of the United States, the omicron variant was relentless, and inflation was escalating. On top of that, the enhanced child care tax credit ceased at the end of 2021, impacting millions of families. Despite all that, consumers ramped up spending even after a record-breaking holiday season.”

Data for the subset of hardware stores – NAICS 44413 retailers – are not. Available for January. However, the December update shows hardware stores reached $2.978 billion in sales, up from $2.883 billion in November.

For the full year of 2021, hardware stores (NAICS 44413) hit $34.508 billion, up 5.0% from $32.859 billion. In the prior year.