Sales at major electric appliance retailers fell 1.36 percent in November from a year earlier to 178.41 billion yen, down for the first time in four months, the Nippon Electric Big-Store Association said Thursday.
The association attributed the fall mainly to the more than 30 percent drop in sales of heaters amid an unusually warm winter.
Sales of personal computers dropped by nearly 10 percent due to lower unit prices, also contributing to the overall decline, it said.