UK Retail Sales Index Monthly - ONS, Per Observation

The UK's Retail Sales Index by retail classification, measure and month from the Office for National Statistics (ONS), as clean per-observation records - one classification x measure x month, stamped with the dataset version resolved at run time.

What one record represents

The source is the ONS Retail Sales Index time-series dataset, read through the ONS beta datasets API at api.beta.ons.gov.uk. Each record is one retail classification x measure x month observation - every dimension column the version carries (time, geography and the classification dimensions), the observation value (v4_1) and the resolved dataset_version, which is stamped on every record.

Coverage and versioning

The Actor resolves the latest published version at run time from the ONS dataset API (it does not hard-code a version number), reads that version's own CSV download link and streams it - so the cell tracks the series forward automatically and every row is traceable to the exact version it came from. The version fetched at listing time holds 45,700 observation rows. Because ONS re-publishes and re-versions its series, the live row count is the honest measure and is what this listing quotes; a scheduled run always pulls the newest version. You raise Maximum records to pull the whole series or lower it to sample. Every column is emitted, so no dimension is silently dropped.

Licence

UK Office for National Statistics (ONS). Crown copyright, reusable commercially under the Open Government Licence v3.0 (OGL v3.0) with the acknowledgement 'Source: Office for National Statistics licensed under the Open Government Licence v3.0', carried on every record.

Sibling Actors

The fleet's Eurostat retail-trade-turnover cell is an EU aggregate from a different statistical office (Eurostat), with UK-specific detail here; there is no dataset-row overlap. This is the ONS national series.

Fields, scheduling and integration

Every field in the record is either a source-native identifier, a source-native attribute, or one of the six provenance fields (source, source_dataset, licence, attribution, caveat, observed_at) the fleet attaches to every record. Nothing is derived or inferred beyond the small, documented transforms noted above, and nothing is dropped silently - the handling section spells out exactly what is excluded and why. The grain is one record per the natural unit of the source, which keeps each row independently meaningful, keeps the key stable across runs so re-running is a cheap upsert rather than a re-import, and lets you aggregate up to whatever unit you need without unpicking a pre-joined table.

Because the source republishes on its own cadence, a scheduled run keeps a downstream table current: new and changed records upsert over the old ones on the stable key, and the observed_at stamp tells you when each was last seen live. Set Maximum records low to sample the shape of the data cheaply, then raise it once the cell fits your use; the Actor streams or partitions its source, so memory stays flat regardless of how many records you request, and you are billed only for what is delivered. The output is a flat table of typed records, so it drops straight into whatever you already use: load the run's dataset over the API or an export, key on the record id, and upsert. Because identifiers are preserved exactly as the source publishes them, joins across the fleet's cells - and onto your own systems - work without a mapping layer. There is no subscription and no minimum: the per-record price and the record cap together mean the spend on any run is known in advance and matched exactly to the data you receive.

Reconciling counts honestly

Where the live count differs from any previously published figure, the live measure is the honest one and is what this listing quotes; sources re-issue and re-version their data over time. The run receipt always states what was actually delivered and charged and confirms the two agree, so every run is auditable against itself regardless of what any external index expected.

Scaling, scheduling and support

A common pattern is a light scheduled run that pulls the newest slice into a staging table, then a merge on the stable key into the table your product reads, so you never re-pay for rows you already hold and your history grows cleanly over time. Because the record shape assumes no particular warehouse, language or tool, the integration work is a load and a merge, not a cleaning project: the same code path handles a 40-row sample and a full pull, and the only thing that changes between them is the record cap. If you only need a slice, the cap and any partition or filter inputs bound the run precisely, so a targeted pull costs cents rather than the price of the whole set, and a broad pull is simply a higher cap left to run. Nothing about the delivery is subscription-gated: each run stands alone, priced at exactly the records it returns, so you can dial spend up or down run by run as your needs change, and a scheduled cadence keeps a downstream table current without any standing commitment. When the source publishes a correction or a new period, the next run picks it up and upserts it over the stale row on the same key, so the table you maintain stays both complete and current with no manual reconciliation.

Provenance and compliance

Every run reads the door host's robots.txt at runtime and records the result (URL, status, byte length and, where a policy is served, its SHA-256) in the run's RUN_RECEIPT. Where the host serves no applicable policy - a 404, a 403, or a homepage redirect - the gate records that as a flag and proceeds on the licence, which grants re-use; a flag is never treated as permission in itself. The endpoint is keyless and the Actor reads only the public data door - never a mirror, and it never bypasses a block.

Data quality and freshness

Numbers arrive as real numbers, booleans as real booleans, and every other value as a string or null, so the dataset loads without a cleaning pass. Each record is keyed on a stable composite of the source's own identifiers, so it is safe to diff, deduplicate or upsert. Every run re-reads the live door, so the data is as fresh as the source publishes, and each record's observed_at stamp dates the snapshot. The receipt records how many rows were delivered and charged and confirms charge_equals_delivered.

Billing, delivery and joins

Pricing is per record: you are billed only for records the Actor actually delivers, and the charge is raised after each record is pushed (push-then-charge), so a failed or empty run costs nothing. The Maximum records cap bounds every run, so spend is known before you start - sample cheaply, then raise it. Every record is a flat, typed object keyed on a stable id, so it loads without a cleaning pass, diffs cleanly between runs, and upserts into a table you keep over time; re-running keeps that table current without re-paying for rows you already hold, and each receipt reconciles delivered against charged. Because the source's own identifiers are preserved verbatim, the dataset joins onto other sources keyed on the same identifier.

Who buys this, and how they use it

This cell is bought by teams that need the source's published set as a typed, keyed table they can hold and refresh rather than a page they scrape: market- and macro-intelligence teams sizing and tracking a market, data engineers wiring a clean upstream feed into a warehouse, and compliance and research teams building on a stable identifier. The grain and the key are chosen so the output is a building block, not a one-off export - you run it on a schedule, keep the delta, and join it to your other sources on the identifiers it preserves verbatim. The spend on any run is the per-record price times the records delivered, matched exactly to what you receive.