Here is brief look at USA retail sales. Retail sector is experiencing many challenges including trade wars as well as consumers pull back their purchases.

1. RETAIL SALES – UNITED
STATES – FEBRUARY 2019
LOREM IPSUM DOLOR SIT AMET, CONSECTETUER ADIPISCING ELIT

2. PAUL YOUNG - BIO
• CPA, CGA
• Academia (PF1, FA4 and MS2)
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• SME – Supply Chain ManagementContact information:
Paul_Young_CGA@Hotmail.com

3. AGENDA
• USA Retail Sales / February 2019
• BMO Economics / USA Retail Sales
• Retail Closures / Expansions
• Retail Trends

4. USA RETAIL SALES / FEBRUARY 2019
SOURCE - HTTPS://WWW.CENSUS.GOV/RETAIL/INDEX.HTML

5. BMO ECONOMICS /
USA RETAIL SALES
Source – BMO Economics

6. RETAILER CLOSURES / EXPANSION
Source - https://www.cnbc.com/2019/03/08/these-retailers-have-announced-store-closures-in-2019.html

7. RETAIL TRENDS
• Virtual and Augment Reality “That may not seem compelling on the surface, but these users are highly
attractive to retailers. Of the US consumers who reported trying AR, 41% had income over $75,000 per
year, and 81% were 44 or younger. On the virtual reality side, only 11% of US consumers report owning
a VR headset, a surprisingly low number after two holiday seasons in a row that were considered fairly
successful for VR, between Playstation, Oculus, Samsung and HTC. With these rates of adoption,
companies that are investing in mixed reality (AR or VR, or XR to mean potentially both) are setting
expectations low. Microsoft talks about consumer market penetration of AR in terms of years, and is
partly why the company has chosen to prioritize enterprise applications first.
• ” - https://www.forbes.com/sites/nikkibaird/2019/03/20/what-consumer-adoption-of-augmented-
reality-means-for-retail/#47cae7a34624

8. BOTTOMLINE
• Issues with household wealth - https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2019-03-07/u-s-household-
wealth-slumped-in-fourth-quarter-amid-stocks-rout
• Americans may have used the tax cuts and wage growth to reduced their credit card balances -
https://www.investopedia.com/personal-finance/american-debt-credit-card-debt/
• USA consumer consumption year over year for February 2019 was 2.2%. USA GDP expected to grow
slower in 2019.
• USA trade wars are impacting consumer pricing - https://qz.com/1564566/trumps-trade-war-has-cost-
the-us-at-least-19-billion/.