November 2024 US Consumer Spending: restaurants surge, apparel falls
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The Earnest Analytics Spend Index powered by Vela Gamma transaction data fell 0.3 YoY in November, with a deceleration in credit card spending more than offsetting an acceleration in debit card after steep acceleration in October.
Results from major merchant category codes (MCC) in descending order of total sales:
- Grocery Stores, Supermarket (5411), which includes major grocers like Kroger and Publix, accelerated to 3.1% YoY growth
- Eating Places and Restaurants (5812), which includes casual restaurants like Olive Garden and Chili’s accelerated to 5.7% YoY growth
- Direct Marketing–Catalog Merchants (5964), which includes online ecommerce like Amazon and Temu, decelerated to 0.5% YoY growth
- Miscellaneous General Merchandise Stores (5399), which includes Walmart and Target, accelerated to 1.9% YoY growth
- Fuel Dispenser, Automated (5542), which includes Shell and Exxon, accelerated to -9.3% YoY growth
- Fast Food Restaurants (5814), which includes McDonald’s and Chick-fil-A, accelerated to 3.2% YoY growth
- Wholesale Clubs (5300), which includes Costco and Sam’s Club, decelerated to 7.5% YoY growth
- Department Stores (5311), which includes Nordstrom and Kohl’s, decelerated to -1.7% YoY growth
- Men’s and Women’s Clothing Stores (5691), which includes Old Navy and Abercrombie, decelerated to -7.3% YoY growth
- Equipment, Furniture, and Home Furnishings Stores except Appliances (5712), which includes Wayfair and Williams Sonoma, accelerated to -4.1% YoY growth
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About the Earnest Analytics Spend Index:
The Earnest Analytics Spend Index (EASI) is an alternative data-driven measure of consumer spending that tracks spend across 89 merchant category codes (MCC), encompassing thousands of US merchants. The near real-time data is derived from the credit and debit spend of millions of de-identified US consumers. Advantages of using EASI include faster macro signals and insight into geographic, shopper income, and credit vs debit trends.
Historical numbers can vary due to methodology updates.
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