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As COVID-19 continues to impact every aspect of retail, the latest retail sales report from the U.S. Department of Commerce shows overall retail and food service sales fell 8.7 percent from Feb. 2020 to March 2020. Retail, excluding food service, experienced a 6.2 percent drop from their February levels.
This decline in overall retail and food service sales marks the biggest one-month plunge since the Commerce Department began keeping records, reports The New York Times. Previously, the record fall for retail sales was 3.9 percent in November 2008.
In the same period, sales at building material, garden equipment and supplies dealers (NAICS 444) fell nearly half a percentage point.
Previously, leading home improvement wholesalers united to urge lawmakers to deem home improvement stores essential to continue serving their communities. In the days following, many localities have explicitly listed home improvement stores as essential operations and allowed to continue serving their communities.
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