by Wolf Richter
Wolf Street
Second half of March was the end of retail for many. But some had spiking sales. Brick & mortar department stores will never recover; they were toast before the lockdowns.
Retail sales in March were a doozie. As I pointed out with data on daily sales of new and used vehicles, early March was strong, as consumers were trying to front-run store closures. But then around March 12 sales began to collapse. But not at all stores: Some types of stores such as grocery stores, beverage stores, and general merchandise stores had a booming business. And ecommerce sales exploded. And we’ll go through by category.