Note these numbers are seasonally adjusted but not inflation adjusted
================================================
U.S. retail sales climb in August for third straight month, but momentum is slowing MarketWatch, 9/16/20
https://www.marketwatch.com/story/us-retail-sales-rise-in-august-for-third-month-in-a-row-and-top-precrisis-levels-2020-09-16
U.S. retail sales rise 0.6% in August despite end of federal aid
Sales have exceeded pre-crisis levels since June, a turnaround that few economists would have predicted early in the pandemic.
Internet retailers saw basically no change in sales levels, though receipts are up 22% from a year earlier.
Retail sales are about 2% higher now compared to pre-pandemic levels in February, but they would almost certainly be higher still had there been no viral outbreak.
The article has a graph of percent increase of retail sales vs. a year ago (i.e. year-over-year)
==========================================================
Retail sales from the guvmint
https://www.census.gov/retail/marts/www/marts_current.pdf
August 2020 is up 2.6% compared to August 2019.
Looking at the table, the 1st 8 months of 2020 are down 1.8% compared to the first 8 months of 2019.