Retail Sales Decline 0.4% in September

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.S. retail sales fell 0.4% in September, the Commerce Department reported Friday.

ales excluding automobiles fell 0.5%, Commerce said.

The decrease follows a revised 0.2% gain in August and fell short of economists’ forecast of a 0.2% increase, Bloomberg said.

Sales at filling stations plummeted 9.3% in September, the biggest decline since 1992 when record-keeping for retail sales began, Bloomberg reported.

Sales excluding automobiles, gasoline and building materials, a metric used to calculate gross domestic product figures for consumer spending, increased 0.8% in September, the largest gain since January, Bloomberg said.

Almost all trucking operations depend on the health of retail sales because such sales involve nearly every type of cargo.

Retail sales account for almost half of all consumer spending, which accounts for about two-thirds of the economy.