Few businesses were spared as the lockdown put in place to contain the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc on U.S. retail sales in April. In fact, nonstore retailers, i.e. mostly e-commerce dealers, were the only ones seeing positive sales growth compared to an already weak March.
According to , the entire retail industry suffered dramatic sales declines, with clothing, electronics and furniture stores hit particularly hard by stay-at-home orders. Meanwhile food and beverage stores and building material & garden equipment dealers proved relatively immune to the crisis, with the former even recording a 12 percent sales increase over April 2019.
