The U.S. Census Bureau released advance estimates of retail and food services sales for September on Wednesday morning. Seasonally adjusted sales fell 0.3% to $442.7 billion, compared with August sales, but rose 4.3% year-over-year for September. Total sales for the three-month period of July through September 2014 period were up 4.5% from a year ago.

Excluding motor vehicle and parts sales, month-over-month sales fell 0.2% but rose 4% year-over-year. Analysts were expecting a month-over-month decline of 0.1% and a rise of 0.3% excluding autos and auto parts. Gasoline stations sales fell 0.8% month-over-month and are down 2.5% year-over-year.

Excluding both auto and parts sales and gasoline sales, economists were expecting a 0.5% month-over-month rise in sales. Instead, sales declined by 0.1%. This result is the most disappointing for the month of September.

Sales were weak across a broad range of products. Automobile sales fell 0.8% in September, compared with August, but are up 10.4% compared with September 2013. Building materials and garden supply sales fell 1.1% compared with August and are up 3.4% year-over-year. Non-store retailers (i.e., online stores) saw sales fall 1.1% compared with August. Online sales are up 5.4% year-over year however.

Gasoline sales have tanked both due to lower volume and a sharp drop in price. Typically lower gas prices put more money into consumers’ pockets that they can then spend on other things. If that happened last month, everyone bought the same thing.

In September the highest growth sector was electronics and appliance stores, where sales rose 3.4% month-over-month. The new iPhones from Apple Inc. (NASDAQ: AAPL) are likely the largest contributors to that rise in sales.

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