Retail sales dropped as much as 4% for the holiday season, according to numbers released by MasterCard’s Spending Pulse service, which tracks MasterCard sales and includes estimates for sales by other forms of payment.   Sales December 1st through the 24th were down 4%; November sales were down 2%. 

Those numbers exclude cards and gas, but include food.  Without food, the drop would have been much greater.  Spending Pulse broke out some other categories:

Women’s apparel—down 22.7%

Men’s apparel—down 14.3%

Footwear—down 13.5%

Electronics and appliances—down 26.7%

Luxury goods—down 34.5%

By channel, even e-commerce was not spared, with sales by online retailers dropping 2.3% for the period, according to the report.