BLS Retail Expansion Discussion Questions

BLS retail and retail-related industry discussions

Thank you for participating in our discussions about how retail trade has been changing in recent years. Your knowledge and experience are important to the improvement of our productivity, prices, employment, and related measures. Please consider the following questions for our upcoming discussion:

1. What are the primary characteristics of retail?

   1. NAICS definition:

   2. Quality adjustments: What portion of sale price accounts for inventory management and product selection/variety?

   3. What other characteristics would you include?

   4. Is it possible to quantify each of these factors (proportionally)?

2. What trends are retailers seeing internally that might inform or challenge future data collection?

3. What are the major trends in the retail trade industry that current statistics (i.e. revenue, margins, employment) may be missing?

4. The Committee on National statistics has recommended that statistical agencies identify the upper and lower bounds of retail-supporting industries, what is the broadest list of industries we should include? What is the bare minimum list of industries we should include?

   1. What concerns, if any, do you have for including too much or not enough industry coverage?

5. With respect to auxiliaries (or auxiliary functions) that support retail trade, would it be feasible for retail establishments to estimate a breakdown of costs?