reuters.com
www.reuters.com

U.S. retail sales dropped by the most in nearly two years in January, likely weighed down by frigid temperatures, wildfires and motor vehicle shortages, suggesting a sharp slowdown in economic growth early in the first quarter.

But the larger-than-expected and across the board decline in retail sales reported by the Commerce Department on Friday probably does not reflect a material shift in consumer spending as it also followed four straight months of hefty increases.

A sharp upward revision to December’s sales took some of the sting from the report. Economists also noted that it was difficult to strip out large seasonal swings from the data at the turn of the year, which was also evident in the January consumer inflation report.

  • pelespirit
    12·
    5 days ago

    just figured those were probably rogue contractors for dhl or whoever scamming recipients.

    Nope:

    “I am now stuck with $30,000 of items I can’t move across the border, the lifeblood of my business,” says Leslie Brown, the owner of a Canadian secondhand clothing company that sells to US shoppers on eBay and Poshmark. Yesterday, Brown published a blog post on Medium titled “Donald Trump Will Kill My Business.”

    US customers who placed orders on shopping websites like the popular Chinese fast-fashion platform Shein have been particularly impacted, even if they made their purchases long before the tariffs were announced. They are now forced to either pay hefty fees—in some cases, more than the value of the items inside—or have their packages sent back.

    https://web.archive.org/web/20250206055906/https://www.wired.com/story/tariffs-china-prices-fees-shein-temu/