Christmas might not come for UK shopkeepers
In a rather alarming development it has been reported that while we are still a few weeks away from the festive period, shoppers are beginning to cut back on their spending much early than usual. Shopkeepers throughout the UK are seeing sales fall, visitor numbers on the decline and many are dreading the festive period.
Each and every year we seem to hear the same doom and gloom stories about Christmas spending being the worst for years only for consumers to pull it out of the bag and rush to the tills as Christmas approaches. However, there is a different feel to this Christmas, times are harder and money has never been tighter and even if consumers were in the mood to spend the cupboard is empty.
This Christmas will most certainly be the worst on record for some time and we will see major well known companies struggle into the New Year and then fall. We are hearing news that Woolworths is possibly in trouble but this may just be the tip of the iceberg. The worrying thing is that there is nothing that the government, the consumer or the retail trade can do about this slowdown in time to impact upon Christmas.
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