For many car audio specialists, the tax season surge that usually boosts sales in March, didn’t materialize, but it turns out they weren’t alone.
Retail sales in the US fell unexpectedly in March, especially auto sales.
Retail sales fell by 0.3 percent, while economists had expected them to rise by 0.1 percent. In fact, when combined with other economic data, it looks like “the economy hit a soft patch in the first three months of the year,” said Reuters, according to the New York Times.
One reason for the sluggish sales could be the stock market sell-off in the first quarter that hurt consumer optimism, said Reuters.
Auto sales had their largest dip in over a year, falling 2.1 percent in March.
Also sales at clothing stores and online retailers fell, and sales at restaurants and bars were “weak,” said the NY Times. On the other hand, consumers spent more on sporting goods, hobbies and electronics in general.
Economists, however, expect spending to pick up this year, said The Wall Street Journal, which noted that hourly earnings are up 0.7 percent and 628,000 jobs have been added since the end of 2015.
Many car audio retail specialists said their sales were spotty or down in March. Some attributed the decline to the weather or to economic uncertainty due to election season, while others were puzzled.
“Usually our business was steady all the way through. It was very spotty for the first quarter here,” said Joe Rozynski of Sound Waves of NJ.
Tunes-N-Tint, FL said it wasn’t seeing the typical tax refund activity, but it didn’t cause a dip in overall business for March.
Car Tunes of Santa Rosa, CA said sales were slightly down in March but April is flat.
Joe Forcella of Autotrendz, NJ said, “March was off for us. I don’t think it has to do with tax season. People read the news. Ours is an emotional buy….car dealer sales are slow too.”
Photo credit: www.advancingretail.org
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