Retail Sales Databank

Below, we provide the Census Bureau’s descriptions of the retail sectors that we cover, in brief.

Furniture and home-furnishing retailers: Retailers that sell furniture, home furnishings, floor coverings and major home appliances and electronics. Some may offer interior decorating services along with the sale of products.

Electronics and appliance retailers: Retailers that sell household and consumer electronics, such as household appliances, home entertainment systems, computers, computer peripherals, mobile phones, gaming consoles and others.

Home-improvement and gardening retailers: Retailers that sell home-improvement and garden equipment and supplies.

Food and beverage retailers: Retailers that sell fresh and processed food, such as supermarkets, convenience stores, specialty food stores, markets (for meat, fish, fruit and vegetables), baked goods stores, confectionery stores and liquor stores.

Grocery retailers: A subsector of food and beverage retailers that includes supermarkets and convenience stores, which retail general lines of food.

Health and personal care retailers: Retailers that primarily sell personal care products, beauty products, medicines, supplements and optical goods. Drugstore retailers and pharmacies, beauty shops and perfume retailers are part of this sector.

Sporting goods, hobby, musical instrument and book retailers: Retailers that sell sporting equipment (including fitness equipment, camping gear, bicycles, athletic uniforms and specialty sports footwear), toys, games, musical instruments, hobby and craft supplies, and books.

Clothing, footwear and accessories retailers: Retailers that sell women’s, men’s and children’s clothing, accessories (such as hats, gloves, handbags, ties and belts), footwear, jewelry, and luggage and leather goods.

General merchandise retailers: Retailers that sell many lines of products. Department stores, discount department stores, warehouse clubs, supercenters and variety stores fall within this sector.

Department stores: A subsector of general merchandise retailers. Retailers within this group sell a wide range of products, including apparel, footwear, appliances, home furnishings, jewelry, toys and beauty products.

Miscellaneous retailers: Retailers include florists; office supplies and stationery retailers; gift and novelty retailers; used-merchandise retailers; pet and pet supplies retailers; art dealers; mobile home dealers; and tobacco retailers.

Nonstore retailers: Retailers include electronic shopping and mail order houses, vending-machine operators, direct-selling businesses and fuel dealers, among other direct-selling businesses such as in-home retailers and those that sell from a truck or wagon. This sector also includes online sales from some store-based retailers that separate this business from their store-based operations.

Data on this page are based on non seasonally adjusted data published by the US Census Bureau.