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Consumer Spending · October 15, 2026 · 1 min read

September retail and food-services sales rise 0.8% to $745.0 billion

By Econ Data Tools Editorial Team

Published October 15, 2026 • Updated October 15, 2026

Reviewed by Editorial QC

Census reports a 6.3% annual increase and revises August growth to 1.3%. The sales estimates are seasonally adjusted but not adjusted for inflation.

U.S. retail and food-services sales reached an estimated $745.0 billion in September, the Census Bureau reported on October 15. Sales rose 0.8% from the previous month and 6.3% from September 2025. The advance estimates adjust for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, but not for price changes. They describe dollar sales, so the increase is not a direct measure of inflation-adjusted spending or the quantity of goods purchased. Census reported a 90% confidence margin of plus or minus 0.4 percentage point for the monthly change and plus or minus 0.5 point for the annual change. Those intervals are part of the estimate, not additional growth. The July-to-August increase was revised from 1.1% to 1.3%. Revised August sales were $739.3 billion. Readers comparing successive releases should use the revised prior month rather than the initial estimate. Total sales for July through September were 5.5% above the same period of 2025, with a margin of plus or minus 0.5 percentage point. This three-month comparison is distinct from September's single-month annual growth rate. What to watch: the advance estimate is subject to revision, and price changes remain embedded in the dollar totals. The release supports a rise in reported sales, not an automatic conclusion about real household demand, corporate earnings or a particular interest-rate response.

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