Have we seen the worst on the high street?
While much of the news coming from high street seems to be a negative nature there appears to be some good news on the horizon. We have seen figures from New Look and John Lewis on the up even though the vast majority of high street retailers have struggled. There is some speculation that maybe the worst is over even though 2009 is expected to be even worse year for the UK economy. So how can the performance of high street retailers be so different?
One element which seems to be coming to the fore is the fact that the larger retailers seem to be faring a lot better (with many using heavy sales discounts to sell off old stock) although the smaller retailers seem to be struggling. There are concerns that the larger retailers will take a tighter grip on the retail market to the detriment of competition and innovation for consumers. While we have seen a number of retailers go under since the turn of the year many expect this to get much worse in the short to medium term.
Price discounts and special offers for consumers are now commonplace on the high street but unfortunately many consumers have no free cash to spend.
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