# NRSInsights Same-Store Sales Rise 0.1% as Retail Volume Falls

By John Kim

Canonical URL: https://www.tokenpost.com/news/business/29149
Published: 2026-10-09T16:49:46.000Z
Updated: 2026-10-09T16:49:46.000Z
Section: Business

> Unit sales fell 2.0% and transactions per store declined 3.4% year over year, while average prices for the 500 most-purchased items rose 2.1%.

NRSInsights’ same-store sales rose 0.1% year over year in September as unit volume and transactions per store declined, while average prices increased at independent retailers.

The increase followed a 1.1% year-over-year decline in August. Same-store sales fell 1.3% from August, while sales for the three months ended Sept. 30 rose 0.5% from the comparable period a year earlier.

Units sold dropped 2.0% from September 2025 and 1.2% from August. Transactions per store, also known as baskets, declined 3.4% year over year and 1.4% month over month.

The dollar-weighted average price of the 500 most-purchased items increased 2.1% from a year earlier, compared with a 1.7% rise in August. The comparisons were adjusted for differences in the number of calendar days in each period.

“Same-store sales in September 2026 increased 0.1% compared to September 2025. In August, sales had decreased 1.1% year-over-year,” Brandon Thurber, vice president of Data Sales & Client Success at NRS, said. “Units sold and baskets sold both decreased year-over-year in September for the third consecutive month.”

The year-over-year comparison covered approximately 244 million transactions across about 26,300 stores that processed transactions in both September 2026 and September 2025. NRS terminals processed $2.2 billion in sales across 148 million transactions during the month.

NRSInsights analyzes transactions from National Retail Solutions’ point-of-sale network, which primarily serves independently owned convenience stores, bodegas, liquor stores, grocers, and tobacco and sundries retailers.

Sales of performance nutrition shakes, prepared cocktails, multigrain snacks and certain tobacco categories increased by double digits. Washington, D.C., and Los Angeles recorded the largest regional declines, while Chicago and Detroit posted slight year-over-year increases. Raleigh-Durham was a positive outlier.

The September figures were released Oct. 9 at 12:25 p.m. ET (16:25 UTC).