Big name retailers across the United States are collapsing as pre-existing conditions are exacerbated by the coronavirus crisis. But that didn’t stop overall retail sales from rising quicker than predicted in June, as more and more stores opened back up for business. The country’s Commerce Department said that retail sales jumped 7.4 percent, following on the heels of an even more impressive 18.2 percent surge in May. Analysts had expected June’s results to be as more than 2 percent less cheery than they ended up being. If the country were following the European model, where life is returning to something closer to normality, the stronger than hoped for numbers in June would be encouraging. Instead, they were published just as new cases were rising at more than 60,000 per day, and some states were returning to a state of lockdown.
