Retail sales breakdown: Grocery stores, online retail stand out while home improvement lags
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Retail sales rose 0.5% in March compared to the February tally and were up 6.9% from a year ago.
Categories showing momentum in March included restaurants (+19.4% year-over-year) and department stores (+7.4%) as foot traffic improved against the soft pandemic comparable from a year ago. Grocery stores (+9.5% year-over-year) also had a strong month as higher pricing factored in for chains like Kroger (NYSE:KR), Albertsons Companies (NYSE:ACI), Grocery Outlet Holding (NASDAQ:GO), Weis Markets (NYSE:WMK) and Sprouts Farmers Market (SFM).
Watch Home Depot (HD) and Lowe's (LOW), with the home improvement/building materials category only up 0.6% from a year ago as consumers seemed to have pulled back on household project spending vs. other discretionary spending categories.
Online retail held up fine (+0.8% M/M, +13.3% Y/Y) in a strong signal that Amazon (AMZN), Wayfair (W), Etsy (ETSY) and eBay (EBAY) may have exited Q1 with consumer spending tailwinds.
Dig further into the retail sales report.