US: Retail Sales by Distribution Channel: Pre and Post-Great Recession

The Great Recession affected the U.S. economy severely. Within the U.S. economy, consumer demand was one of the most affected sectors as the rate of unemployment surged, home and stock market prices plummeted and Americans lost trillions of dollars in income and wealth. Not only did U.S. consumption decline during the Great Recession, but consumers also changed the way in which they consumed, that is, it also affected the choice of retail outlet in which to consume goods and some services.

Retail sales and food services are recorded through the retail distribution channel in which those sales are made.1 That is, gasoline sales are recorded as gasoline stations’ gasoline sales while automobiles are sold through automobile dealers’ sales, etc. However, this does not mean that other distribution channels do not sell goods that are sold through a sector specific channel, i.e., flower sales are sold through flower stores but also by supermarkets, etc. According to the U.S. Census Bureau, if a supermarket reports flower sales separately, i.e., if flower sales are a large component of their total sales, then they tend to segment those sales. In this case, those sales are reported as being performed through the flower store sales channel rather than through supermarket channel. Thus, the caveat on this report is that we are assuming that there has not been a big change in the reporting of sales between the precession period and the period after the recession.