Retail Sales Drop 2.4% in April

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U.S. consumers fell down on the job last month.


Retail sales slumped 2.4% compared with April 2006, slipping to $52.6 billion in the most wretched year-over-year showing by major retailers since the International Council of Shopping Centers began tracking the data in 1970, the Los Angeles Times reports.


The numbers released Thursday were so dismal they helped trigger the biggest stock market sell-off in nearly two months.


If gasoline prices keep squeezing pocketbooks, the coming months could be bleak too. The national average reached $3.04 a gallon Thursday and the California average hit $3.49.


“It’s changed the whole dynamics of my shopping,” said Roger Ervast, a chemist who lives in Redlands.


Sales in April at stores open at least a year, a standard measure in retailing, fell 16% at Gap Inc., 6.1% at Target Corp. and 3.5% at Wal-Mart Stores Inc. The world’s largest retailer said it was the worst performance in at least 28 years.



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