Olympia — Taxable retail sales declined 12.8 percent to $23.2 billion during the first quarter of 2009 compared to the first quarter of 2008, the Department of Revenue reported today.

Retail trade, a component of all taxable retail sales that includes retailers but excludes sales tax from other industries such as services and construction, dropped 11.9 percent to $10.0 billion.

Among the largest industries, retail sales from construction dropped 20.4 percent to $4.3 billion; motor vehicle and parts dropped 23.3 percent to $2.1 billion; accommodations and food services dropped 5.1 percent to $2.4 billion; general merchandise stores declined 0.9 percent to $1.5 billion, the retail component of wholesale trade declined 18.3 percent to $1.8 billion, miscellaneous retailers dropped 12.2 percent to $1.3 billion, information services dropped 0.7 percent to $1.2 billion, and building materials, garden equipment and supplies dropped 21.2 percent to $851 million.

Bremerton’s taxable sales in quarter one of 2008 were $193,740,513. In the first quarter of 2009 the number dropped to $160,076,727, a decrease of more than 17 percent. When looking solely at taxable sales from retailing, 2008’s first-quarter figure was $101,521,225 but in the first quarter of this year that number dropped more than 22 percent to $78,955,010.