Specialty Retail and Department Stores: May spending accelerates despite macro pressure

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Specialty Retail and Department Stores: May spending accelerates despite macro pressure

Accessible version

Specialty Retail and Department Stores

May spending accelerates despite macro

pressure

Industry Overview

Low-income uptick despite fading refunds 11 June 2026

Total retail (excluding auto) spending increased 6.7% y/y in May, according to BAC Equity

aggregated credit and debit card data, compared to +5% y/y in April (Exhibit 1) as the United States

consumer held up despite a waning impact from tax refunds. Spending was mixed across Retailing

categories in May, with the strongest acceleration in Teen Clothing and Sporting Goods Lorraine Hutchinson, CFA

and deceleration in Discount and Specialty Running. See the BofA on USA report for Research Analyst

methodology, limitations, and disclaimers related to BAC aggregated credit and debit BofAS+1 646 855 0951

card data and commentary on broader retail trends from BofA Global Research's US lorraine.hutchinson@bofa.com

Economics team. Kendall Toscano

Research Analyst

BofAS

+1 646 855 1704Low-income consumer uptick despite waning tax refunds

kendall.toscano@bofa.com

Clothing spending was +5.4% in May versus +3.8% in April. The spread between low-

Mary Sport

income and high-income continued contracting in May due to an uptick in spend from Research Analyst

the lower-income consumer (Exhibit 3). We view the recent uptick in low-income BofAS

+1 646 743 0227

spending as transitory, with tax refund tailwinds fading in the next months. Teen mary.sport@bofa.com

clothing spend accelerated to +0.9% in May vs -10.1% in April. Young adult clothing Ryan Abbadi

decelerated to +4.7% versus +5% in April. Children's clothing accelerated to -3.4% in Research Analyst BofAS

May compared to -12.5% in April. +1 646 855 2279