The Johnson Redbook Index shows that:

National chain store sales fell 1.6% in the first four weeks of July versus the previous month, according to Redbook Research’s latest indicator of national retail sales released Tuesday.

…The Johnson Redbook Index also showed seasonally adjusted sales in the period were down 5.6% compared with July 2008, compared to a targeted 6% fall.

We guess it’s no wonder with indiviual’s incomes way down from last year as indicated by the 22% fall in income tax payments to the Federal government, compared to last year.

The numbers could hardly be more stark: Tax receipts are on pace to drop 18 percent this year, the biggest single-year decline since the Great Depression, while the federal deficit balloons to a record $1.8 trillion.

Other figures in an Associated Press analysis underscore the recession’s impact: Individual income tax receipts are down 22 percent from a year ago. Corporate income taxes are down 57 percent. Social Security tax receipts could drop for only the second time since 1940, and Medicare taxes are on pace to drop for only the third time ever.

The last time the government’s revenues were this bleak, the year was 1932 in the midst of the Depression.