“I think many retailers were holding out filing bankruptcy to see how the holiday season is going to go." Retail sales fell a seasonally adjusted 1.1% in November, according to the U.S. Commerce Department. The biggest drop was at department stores, down 7.7%. Still, the National Retail Federation, the nation's largest retail trade group, expects holiday sales to increase between 3.6 percent and 5.2 percent compared to 2019, mostly due to strong sales at the big box stores. Those numbers, which exclude automobile dealers, gasoline stations and restaurants, compare with last year's gain of 4%.

Source: Daily Sun December 21, 2020 19:52 UTC