December retail sales fall 1.9% after early holiday rush

NEW YORK — Americans, beset by lack of product choices, rising prices and the arrival of omicron, sharply cut their spending in December after a burst of early buying in the fall boosted this year's holiday shopping season.

Retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 1.9% in December from November when sales increased 0.3%, the U.S. Commerce Department said Friday. Sales rose 1.8% in October as shoppers, worried about product shortages, got a head start on their holiday buying. Still, retail sales surged 16.9% last month compared with December 2020, the Commerce Department said Friday. For all of 2021, sales spiked 19.3% compared with the previous year.

Spending declines were spread across numerous sectors. Department store sales fell 7%, restaurant sales slipped 0.8% and online sales fell 8.7% compared with the previous month, according to the report.

Omicron was identified by the World Health Organization in late November, and the December report from the Commerce Department is the first to capture some of its effect on consumer behavior.

The monthly retail report covers only about a third of overall consumer spending and doesn't include money spent on things like haircuts, hotel stays or plane tickets, all which tend to see business tail off when anxiety about COVID-19 tick higher. In November, restaurant sales posted a 1% gain — the sector's best performance since July.

Industry analysts suspect that shoppers who waited until the last minute and didn't find what they wanted and took a pass or they bought gift cards, would would not show up in retail data until those cards are redeemed.

There is also the unique era we living through that has skewed a number of economic indicators. Many economists believe that the seasonal adjustment of retail sales has been thrown off by the pandemic, which has scrambled American spending patterns. Seasonal adjustment is intended to account for the normal spike in shopping in December for the holiday season. This year, however, because of wellknown shortages, Americans started to shop for the holidays early and the seasonal adjustment could have exaggerated any December retreat.

And Americans this year have not pulled back on spending. They are spending their money differently, but they are spending more, not less.

The National Retail Federation is crunching last month's sales figures and will release its report Friday for November and December. The nation's largest retail trade group has projected record-busting growth of anywhere between 8.5% and 10.5%, compared with the same two months last year.

Mastercard SpendingPulse, which tracks all kinds of payments including cash and debit cards, reported late last month that holiday sales surged 8.5% from Nov. 1 through Dec. 24 from a year earlier. That was the fastest pace in 17 years.