The Census Bureau was to release its report of September retail sales on October 16th. That is on pause now given the shutdown; as a result, folks will have to look at alternative data to understand how the US consumer is doing – a popular concern these days given the weakish new hiring and net job growth. With that, we are pleased to report that we believe retail spending (as defined by the Census’ report ) during September accelerated from August’s healthy pace, with the incremental driver being stronger spending by affluent households and continued improvement in housing-related demand.

Turnarounds are messy and non-linear, and that’s clear in Nike’s store foot traffic, as shown. A lot of the traffic decline is centered on weaker consumer spending by the non-affluent, which especially hits Nike’s classic styles (Air Force 1, Air Jordan 1, and Dunk), and Nike’s ongoing challenges in athleisure sportswear, in what is a weaker category overall vs. its post-pandemic upsurge. However, in the foot traffic pattern we see a firming up occurring given the moderating volatility and the favorable direction of the “swoosh.

Given our recent analysis on how extended store hours were driving additional visits to **Sam’s **and Costco, we were interested in what Costco had to say about it on yesterday’s earnings call. CEO Ron Vachris said, “We estimate these incremental hours have added about 1% to weekly U.S. sales since implementation. This has been very well received by our members.” CFO Gary Millerchip shared, “Excluding the membership fee increase and FX, membership income grew 7% year-over-year.

Yesterday we took time to visit our nearby Apple store to check on the new iPhone Air (yes, it’s a very nice device) and was surprised by the high bustle of activity at the store despite it being 2:00 on a Wednesday afternoon. We were also struck by the number of folks saying to the salesperson, “We’re here to get new phones.” There were also numerous visitors trying on Apple Watches.

Advan has launched its SpendView™ geographic visualization product. This shows historical brand and location level, as well as consumer spending from a zip code / DMA / regional level (within where the spender lives). This is based on our panel of over 120M debit and credit cards. We then aggregate that spending by retailer brand and on- vs. off-line in terms of the utilized channel of a given brand. The charts below contrast Walmart and Amazon, August 2025 vs.

Darden’s fiscal Q1 results were solid, observed traffic (Advan) increased +3.7% at Olive Garden and reported comp-traffic was +3.6% (with catering). Focusing on just Olive Garden, delivery (both the meals and the fees) added around +140bps to comp-sales, and price / mix another +90bps, to make up the +5.9% reported comp-sales increase. Excluding delivery, average check was lifted by pricing, but offset by mix to value offers / portions and less alcohol.

As expected, observed foot traffic and retail sales slowed slightly from July’s strong back-to-school showing; however, contrary to our expectation that it would slow further following back-to-school, the first half of September has demonstrated improved foot traffic momentum, especially at Walmart. We last wrote about Walmart two weeks ago after CEO Doug McMillon’s very favorable commentary at the Goldman Sachs’ investor conference. Walmart’s sustained strong foot traffic trend demonstrates that its compelling value messaging and consumers’ even greater sensitivity to inflation are leading to more foot traffic for the brand.

As of late, we’ve been writing about the improving demand for housing-related retail , with the trend up after being in the dumps since 2022. We also see evidence of that improvement in the building confidence of the management teams of the related principal retailers in to the form of increased capital outlays– **Lowe’s **acquisitions of sheet rock distributor Foundation Building Materials and Artisan Design Group, and Home Depot’s $24B acquisitions of SRS and GMS.

Following our note on **7-Eleven **and its new store prototype and potential to improve its inside-the-store contribution to sales, in addition to our story about drive-through coffee and QSR, here we touch on the strong Q2 results from **Casey’s General Store **and the improving trend for Circle K (Alimentation Couche-Tard). Casey’s CEO Darren Rebelez, “We saw positive traffic growth as guests responded well to our innovation and promotional activity in the prepared food and dispensed beverage category.

Lots of change in the wholesale club arena as we’ve been writing about , the accelerating pace of expansion, the accelerating embrace of multichannel, proof of membership at the door, scan & go, and more. Longer store hours is the latest change. In May, Sam’s opened its cafes an hour earlier. Club hours are now 10-8 for all members. At the end of June, Costco began opening its doors earlier (9:00 AM) to Executive Members, and extended closing time by an hour on Saturdays.