Retail sales rose 0.8% in September, but real buying power gained just 0.1%

Strip inflation out of September's retail sales report and the headline number quietly shrinks. Shoppers handed stores $745.0 billion last month, a 0.8 percent gain from August and 6.3 percent more than a year earlier, according to the U.S. Census Bureau's advance estimate released this afternoon. Buy the same baskets at last year's prices and the advance collapses to 0.1 percent for the month and 2.5 percent for the year. The dollars are real. The extra stuff barely exists.

Key Takeaways Advance retail and food services sales rose 0.8 percent in September to $745.0 billion, up 6.3 percent year over year, per the U.S. Census Bureau (released 2026-10-15). Inflation-adjusted by the retail sales…