Numbers emphasize strong year for dealers

Sales at building materials and garden equipment and supplies dealers (NAICS 444) hit $402,647,000,000 for the 11 months of 2020. That’s a 13.4% increase over the same period in 2019.

Only one category saw more growth over that period — “non-store retailers” (eCommerce retailers) soared 22.6% in the 11-months.

Those figures from the U.S. Census Bureau released Wednesday morning were part of a report that showed overall retail trade sales were down 0.8% compared to October, but up 7.1% compared to the same month last year.

Also compared to the same month last year, November sales for NAICS 444 companies were up 18.7%. On an adjusted basis, NAICS 444 sales for November were up 1.1% over October 2020.

Census Bureau stats for hardware store sales are not yet available for November, but October’s numbers are in, and they are also up.

Hardware store sales (NAICS 44413) were $2.61 billion (unadjusted) in October. That’s up from $2.36 billion from October 2019.