Retail sales dip in September

Washington ? America’s shoppers took a bit of a breather in September, dropping sales at the nation’s retailers by 0.2 percent.

Although the dip in retail sales reported by the Commerce Department on Wednesday was the first since April, it came after consumers, aided by President Bush’s third tax cut, went on a buying binge in July and August.

Sales tax collections in Lawrence and Douglas County were up in September, according to the Kansas Department of Revenue.Lawrence collected $936,321 in sales taxes in September, up 14.8 percent from a year ago. For the fiscal year, which began in July, collections are up 0.5 percent.In Douglas County, September collections were up 15.5 percent from a year ago, climbing to $1.02 million.

Retail sales went up by a strong 1.4 percent in July and then by 1.2 percent in August, according to revised figures. The increase in August’s sales turned out to be two times bigger than the 0.6 percent rise that the government first reported a month ago, and the advance in July also was slightly larger than previously estimated.

Economists were predicting that the brisk performance registered in July and August just couldn’t be maintained in September; they had forecast a sales dip of 0.1 percent.

While shoppers were more selective in September, they still had an appetite to spend.

Excluding sales of automobiles, which fell by 1.6 percent in September, sales by all other merchants went up by a modest 0.3 percent — close to economists’ forecast for a 0.4 percent increase in that category.