Retail Sales Reports Give Me Gas

``Once gasoline sales are backed out the net sales result is adjusted by the change in CPI, suddenly that 6.7% year over year gain gets a whole lot smaller, dropping to 1.75%.  That's down sharply from a year to year gain of 3.2% in September and 3.5% in August. Not only are October sales ho-hum at best, they represent deceleration in growth from the two previous months. ''