By Andrew Miller
Small business sales rose again in August.
That happened despite the continued downward trend of customers coming through the door.
The reading comes from Fiserv, which tracks card, cash, and check payments at about 2 million small businesses. Its index held at 145 in August, with sales up 1.3% from a year earlier.
On the surface, it was a steady month.
Transactions, which Fiserv uses to measure customer traffic, fell 1.8% from a year earlier. That was the tenth month in a row of decline.
What kept sales positive was price.
The average purchase rose 3.0%. Customers spent more each time and came in less often.
Restaurants, for example, saw sales slip 0.3% from a year earlier. The fast-food end took the worst of it, with sales down 2.5% and the number of orders down 4.2%.
The spending that held up was the spending people can’t skip.
Essentials grew about twice as fast as discretionary purchases, and the steepest drop in visits came in the discretionary categories.
“Consumers are still spending, but they’re making fewer trips and becoming more deliberate with their purchases,” said Prasanna Dhore, Fiserv’s chief data officer.
A sales line that rises on bigger tickets rather than more customers depends on two things staying true. Prices must keep climbing, and customers keep paying them.
In August, both held true.
However, the traffic has been pointing the other way since last winter.
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