To provide current estimates of sales at retail and food service stores
and inventories held by retail stores. The United States Code, Title 13, authorizes
this survey and provides for voluntary responses. Companies with one or more establishments that sell merchandise and related
services to final consumers. Retail firms provide data on dollar value of retail sales and sales for selected
establishments; some firms also provide data on value of end-of-month inventories. The survey has been conducted monthly since 1951. A new sample is chosen approximately
every 5 years.
A mail-out/mail-back survey of about 12,000 retail businesses with paid employees
selected for sales, including about 4,000 businesses also selected for inventories;
supplemented by estimates for non-employers, new employers, and missed employers
obtained from benchmarking to the Annual Retail Trade Survey. The sample of
retail firms is drawn from the Business Register which contains all Employer
Identification Numbers (EINs) and listed establishment locations. Sales and
inventories data are collected using one combined survey form. Firms selected for the retail sales survey are first stratified by major kind
of business and estimated sales. All firms with sales above applicable size
cutoffs are selected into the survey and report for all their retail industry
EINs. In a second stage, unselected EINs are stratified by major kind of business
and sales, and randomly selected from each strata. Approximately 3,000 of the
12,000 are selected with certainty. Some firms are also selected for inventories
by stratifying most firms in the larger sales sample by kind of business and
sales sizes. Approximately 1,000 of the 4,000 are selected with certainty. The sample is updated quarterly to reflect employer business "births"
and "deaths"; adding new employer businesses identified in the Business
and Professional Classification Survey, and dropping firms and EINs when it is
determined they are no longer active. There is about a 9-month delay before
new firms can be represented in the sample. Monthly Retail Trade, Sales and Inventories reports are released 6 weeks after
the close of the reference month. They contain preliminary figures for the current
month and final figures for the prior 12 months. Statistics include retail sales,
inventories, and ratios of inventories-to-sales. Data are both seasonally adjusted
and unadjusted. The Annual Benchmark Report for Monthly
Retail Trade and Food Services is released annually each spring. This
report includes revised and benchmarked monthly estimates of sales and inventories;
monthly data for the most recent 10 years; and detailed annual estimates and
ratios for the U.S. by kind of business. These data are widely used throughout government, academic, and business communities.
The Bureau of Economic Analysis uses the estimates to calculate Gross Domestic
Product. The Bureau of Labor Statistics uses the estimates to develop consumer
price indexes and productivity measurements. The Council of Economic Advisers
uses the estimates to analyze current economic activity. The Federal Reserve
Board uses the estimates to assess recent trends in consumer purchases. The
media use the estimates to report news of recent consumer activity. Financial
and investment companies use the estimates to measure recent economic trends.
Contributes to two designated principal economic indicators. This survey is
an integral component of the Advance Monthly Retail Sales Survey and
the Manufacturing and Trade Inventories and Sales Report.
Business
and Professional Classification Survey EXPLORE INFORMATION CONTINUE OVERVIEW Last revised:
Thursday, 27-Jul-2006 11:10:45 EDT
MONTHLY RETAIL SALES SURVEY
PURPOSE
COVERAGE
CONTENT
FREQUENCY
METHODS
PRODUCTS
USES
SPECIAL FEATURES
RELATED PROGRAMS