Though retail sales have stabilized to reach previous year’s levels, fashion sales at brick and mortar stores have not yet recovered from pandemic losses. As per Sourcing Journal, retail and food services sales in October rose by a seasonally adjusted 0.3 percent in October compared with September and marked a 5.7 percent rise from a year ago, according to the Census Bureau’s latest monthly reading Tuesday.

Retail and food service sales remained flat in the first 10 months of 2020. Unemployment rate shot from 4.4 percent in March to 14.7 percent in April and has yet to recover, currently standing at 6.9 percent. Fashion retailers saw their sales fall harder. Sales at apparel and accessories specialty stores declined 4.2 percent from September and by 12.6 percent from a year ago.

Sales at department stores dropped by 4.6 per cent from September and were off 11.9 percent from a year earlier. Jack Kleinhenz, Chief, National Retail Federation, believes early holiday shopping appears to have supported October’s increase in sales. He revealed that the biggest and strongest retailers have managed to reestablish themselves enough to look to better times next year.

Kohl’s Corp eked out a third-quarter profit and was planning to bring back its dividend in the first half, while Walmart earnings topped expectations with apparel performing well for the mass merchant.