In these pandemic times are area residents doing more of their shopping at home or on-line? On-line sales are certainly strong with the New York Times reporting Amazon, the king of the on-line retailers, hiring an average of 1,400 new workes per day. Between January and October, Amazon hired 427,300 people world-wide. In spite of the surge in on-line sales, the latest sales tax report from the Nebraska Department of Revenue indicates local sales are remaining strong.

In November the state department released the August sales report which is the latest information available on local sales.

Retail sales attributed to Superior were up 11.6 percent when compared to 2019. For Nuckolls County as a whole, the retail sales were up 6.6 percent.

For nearby Nebraska counties, sales were down 2.5 percent in Clay but up 11.1 in Adams, 11.9 in Thayer and 0.09 in Webster.

Motor vehicle registrations are not included in these totals.

It appears retail sales took the biggest blow in the early days of the pandemic.

For April, Adams County managed to squeak out a slight increase of 2.17 percent, while Clay County sales were down 12.9, Nuckolls County down 10.1, Superior down 12 percent, Thayer County 8.5 percent and Webster 0.6 percent.

May was mixed with some counties showing an increase while others continued on the downward slope. In May sales were down 1.7 percent in Adams County and 13.3 percent in Clay County.

Superior and Nuckolls County managed to show a slight increase in May. Sales were up1.8 percent county-wide and 4.1 percent in Superior.Thayer County was up a whopping 15.2 percent while Webster County flickered to the positive side to finish up 1.2 percent.

June was mixed with some reports up and others down.

Adams and Clay counties had healthy increases of 8.7 and 7.1 percent respectively. Nuckolls managed to over come a 1.8 percent drop in Superior to record a positive increase of 4.8 percent. Thayer was down 3 percent while Webster went up 2.7 percent.