Retail Sales Fall by Most in Three Years

Retail sales fell 1.2% in September, the biggest drop in three years, led by a steep drop in automobile sales, the Commerce Department said Wednesday.

The drop, which followed a revised 0.4% downturn in August, was almost twice as big as economists’ forecasts of a 0.7% decline, Bloomberg reported.

Sales excluding automobiles fell 0.6%, also more than the 0.2% drop forecast. Auto sales fell 3.8%.

The decline marked the third straight monthly decline, the first time that has happened since comparable records began being kept in 1992, Bloomberg reported.

Both furniture and clothing store sales fell by 2.3%.

Almost all trucking operations depend on the health of retail sales because such sales involve nearly every type of cargo.