Retail Sales Fall 0.5% in August

Retail sales fell 0.5% in August, the Commerce Department said Friday.

The drop, which followed a revised 0.5% downturn in July, exceeded economists’ forecasts of a 0.2% decline, Bloomberg reported.

Sales excluding automobiles fell 0.7%, the biggest such decline this year. Purchases excluding gasoline were unchanged following a 0.6% decline in July.

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