This Week in Retail: tariff refunds and April retail sales

Mother’s Day was yesterday, and hopefully you remembered to call and/or visit yours. If not, you may just want to buy her something nice to make up for it.

Apparently a number of people opened their wallets for the holiday. According to the National Retail Federation, shoppers were predicted to spend a record $38 billion, up from the previous record of $35.7 billion in 2023. The industry group said consumers made the holiday a priority, despite recent economic uncertainty.

Here’s what else is going on in retail this week:

In policy: US Customs and Border Protection last week said the first round of tariff refunds is expected to be sent out electronically on Tuesday. The announcement comes three months after the Supreme Court overturned the Trump administration's legal justification for drastically hiking tariff rates—a policy that continues to sow uncertainty across the global economy. In April, the agency opened a portal to process reimbursement requests from importers.

In data releases: Retail sales numbers for April are dropping on Thursday, and economists are expecting the data to show continued resilience on the part of US consumers. The previous report showed sales increasing a hefty 1.7% month over month in March and 4% from the year before, but a sizable portion of those gains were generated by higher prices at the pump due to the closure of the Strait of Hormuz.

In openings: The fast-growing discount chain, Burlington Store, is opening 26 new locations this month, and 10 are opening their doors this Friday, including new stores in California, Arizona, Wisconsin, North Carolina, South Carolina, Kentucky, and Illinois. In 2024, the discounter opened 104 net new stores, as total sales increased 9% for the year.