By Robert Hughes
Retail sales and food-services spending plunged 8.7 percent in March following a 0.4 percent drop in February. Excluding the volatile auto and energy categories, core retail sales and food services were down 3.1 percent in March after a fall of 0.2 percent in February. Over the past year, total retail sales and food services were down 6.2 percent through March, the worst performance since September 2009, while core retail sales and food services have increased 0.2 percent, the slowest pace since January 2010 (see first chart).
Industry performance in March was extremely