Consumer spending slowed down last month, which is hardly a surprise since GDP growth also slowed down. So instead of a boring chart of real consumer expenditures, I tried to think of something a little more interesting. Here it is:
This shows goods as a share of all consumer spending. When the pandemic started, spending on services plummeted because we were all trying to stay away from other humans. As a result, spending on goods became a bigger part of household spending, peaking in March at 42% of all spending. This finally turned around a bit as vaccines started to roll out and personal services (haircuts, nails, etc.) began to reopen. However, spending on goods remains higher than usual.
UPDATE: The original version of the chart showed the wrong dates. It's correct now.
What??? August and September consumer spending was similar. You still don't seem to get the auto stuff.
> spending on goods remains higher than usual
That's not a conclusion that can be drawn from the given chart. The percentage of consumer spending that is spent on goods remains higher than usual. Absolute spending on goods might have dropped, as far as that chart is concerned.