by Sales also are down .9% from November while overall retail sales are flat during the same period
WASHINGTON — The U.S. Census Bureau conducts the Advance Monthly Retail Trade and Food Services Survey to provide an early estimate of monthly sales by kind of business for retail and food service firms located in the United States. Today, the U.S. Department of Commerce released its advance estimates for December 2025, which concludes its reports for the holiday season.
December 2025 retail sales, adjusted for seasonal variation and holiday and trading-day differences, totaled $735 billion. Most notably, according to the report published by the U.S. Census Bureau, those figures, when compared to November 2025, were “virtually unchanged from the previous month.” However, the report said they were up 2.4% from December 2024.
Of the total, furniture and home furnishings stores represented $135.8 billion and were down 5.6% from December 2024 and were down .9% from November.
“Retail sales are one of the most closely watched indicators in the U.S. economy because consumer spending accounts for roughly seventy percent of GDP, and retail data provides one of the earliest high-frequency signals of household demand,” Thomas Thompson, chief economist at Havas Edge, a Carlsbad, California-based performance marketing agency, shared in a LinkedIn post. “The report is closely monitored by the Federal Reserve, investors, and retailers as a real-time gauge of economic momentum.”
According to an article from CNBC, “the shopping pace failed to keep up with inflation, as the consumer price index for December posted a 2.7% increase.”
However, Thompson took a measured approach to his analysis. “The December numbers do not point to a collapsing consumer,” Thompson added. “They point to a more measured one. After several months of steady gains, spending momentum cooled during the final stretch of the holiday season. That outcome aligns with a labor market that remains stable but is no longer accelerating, and with wage growth that is normalizing after a period of unusually strong increases.”
The data for furniture and home furnishings sales from the December 2024 through December 2025 period shows a slight growth of 2.3%. Currently, there is no date for the next release of data as the report is delayed due to a current lapse in federal funding.
