July Sales Were Terrible. We Saw Declining Sales in Six Retail Sectors, July to July. We saw lower July 2016 sales compared to July 2015 in the Vehicle Sales, Building Materials and Garden, Electronics and Appliance, Gasoline, Clothing, and General Merchandise Sectors. We have seen consistent under-performance in the Electronic and Appliance Sectors  and the Clothing Sector this year. The gasoline savings is thought to be a stimulus to the economy. We must be eating a large share of those savings. We already know that the Gasoline Savings Stimulus is a Myth. We are being impeded by higher taxes.

The May Retail Sales were revised down by 88 Million Dollars.  We saw nine sectors with downward revisions from the preliminary revisions that were released with the June Advance MARTS report. The largest downward revisions were with regard to Gasoline Sales, Clothing Sales, Hobby Sales, and Food and Beverage Places. We saw upward revisions in the vehicle , furnishing, , non-store retail, and general Merchandise Sectors.

The problem is that we are a consumption based economy. If this is supposed to be an indicator of where the third quarter GDP is heading, we may be heading for a fall. July 2009 was terrible with year over year declines in ten sectors. We even stopped spending money for groceries and dining out during July 2009. These may be the canary in the coal mine numbers to watch.

We cannot tax our way to surpluses. We can't eat our way to prosperity.

We are a consumption based economy. Every month we receive the Monthly and Annual Retail Trade Survey (MARTS) data. Retail sales are broken down into thirteen categories. We are able to track each sector and compare sales from from to month and year to year. Today's Advance MARTS report contains the advance data for July, the preliminary data for June, and the "final" data for May. I say "final" because no data is final with regard to government data.

The advance data for January was good, only to be revised downward with the release of the February MARTS report. We had seen a very weak December until the final numbers were reported. The release of the March MARTS report spawned the column "'Strong' Taxes. Weak March Retail Sales. Saving $35 Billion on Gasoline, Paying $43 Billion more in Taxes" attempted to explain why retail sales have not been stellar. Fast Forward to the June MARTS  and we see that we have sluggishness in Gasoline Sales, Clothing Sales, and the Electronics and Appliances Sector.

This author sent out a tweet last night that we should expect continued weakness in the Gasoline, Clothing, and Electronics. So what Happened with regard to the advance, preliminary and final MARTS numbers for July, June, and May?

The Good News and the Bad News, and the Worse News. The good news is that we saw upward revisions to the June Retail Sales numbers. We saw Vehicle sales improve by 740 million, Food and Beverage  Drinking Places increase by 619 million, Home and Building Material sales increased by 285 million, Gasoline retail sales revised up by 219 million dollars, and clothing sales increase by 214 million. We also saw the sales volume for Food and Beverage Store revised down by 253 million, General Merchandise Sales down 178 million, Miscellaneous Sales down 294 million dollars. Net net, June retail sales was revised up by 1.63 billion dollars. The problem is that the June Retail sales numbers for Furniture Sales, Electronics and Appliance, and Gasoline sales are still not at Pre-Recession Levels.