Before getting to the data, one point is critical to remember. The commerce department sales figures are based on dollars spent. This point is important, because the items being purchased have inflation within them. When prices are higher due to inflation, sales figures should be higher due to higher prices. Ex. If there is an 8% increase in retail price, but only a 4% increase in retail sales, that means less stuff is being sold. [Less units sold at a higher price gives the illusion of an increase in sales.]
Despite the start of the traditional holiday sales and shopping period, the total sales growth in November was 0.3% over October [Column A]. Factoring in inflation during the same month to month comparison at 0.9%, you can tell that overall in November there was a drop in units sold across the total of retail sales outlets.