High Street Sales Are Struggling
Those who thought that May's spending growth on the high street was set to continue for some time will be sadly disappointed with news that like for like retail sales in June were down some 0.4%. While not a large drop, it seems as though finally the tightening of budgets and lack of credit is starting to register with many consumers. While the May figure was something of a blip in the overall picture, it seems that high street spending is set to follow a more traditional path when consumers are faced with recession and job losses.
Even when sales on the high street were holding up fairly well on the whole we were still hearing noises which said otherwise. The recent announcement that Marks and Spencer was seeing a large fall off in sales seemed to be the straw which broke the camels back and brought the situation into focus for many. Stock market analysts have been steadying themselves for a fall in retail spending for some time, and taken the red pen to many company profit forecasts.
With the Bank of England unable to assist with cheaper credit in the short term it seems that many retailers across the UK are in for a very rough ride over the next 12 months at least.
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