Retail Sales Down According To BRC!

Taken from the BRC website....

Unexpectedly resilient official retail sales figures fail to convey how tough conditions are for customers and retailers, said the British Retail Consortium (BRC).

Today's Office for National Statistics (ONS) figures suggest August's total sales values were up 3.9 per cent on a year ago, well above the weak 1.4 per cent shown by the BRC's figures. ONS year-on-year growth was higher in August than July (they also reported an increase in year-on-year sales growth between June and July). The BRC's Retail Sales Monitor shows it has been falling.

ONS don't measure like-for-like sales but BRC figures show sales down year-on-year for five of the last six months.

This is what tigerstep blog has been saying for a while now... funny how the government wants to paint a rosey picture when in fact its the very opposite.

Stephen Robertson, Director General of the British Retail Consortium, said: "These unexpectedly resilient figures fail to convey how tough conditions are for customers and retailers. Plenty of retailers would be delighted if their sales values were up nearly four per cent on a year ago.

"Fundamental conditions are weakening, not improving, and recent banking industry uncertainty can only make customers more nervous about spending.

"Yes, clothing and footwear sales growth has risen but that growth is modest and driven by discounts. It cannot be called strong and cannot explain ONS' high overall figures.

"We respect the ONS's process but the Bank of England is right to treat these figures as only one measure of retail performance."

Changes in the market...

With the BOE setting rate at midday we look at the impact on the current market.

The word of the month is SLOWDOWN...

Inflation is at 4.4%, however this is still far from the truth. The UK is exposed in three ways to the credit crunch. The UK has heavily overvalued housing, the most indebted consumers in the world and an economy that is peculiarly reliant on financial services. High borrowing costs, a painful housing market correction and losses in the financial sector mean most of the UK’s assets have been dramatically revalued down. As a result sterling has suffered.

Only today Halifax announced that housing prices down 12.7% in the last 12 months, making these the biggest falls since records began

You may have noticed the inflation in food prices are well above the BOW inflation rate. Riverford Organic Veg are one of the UKs most popular organic vegbox company. Guy Watson criticized multiple shops for a mainly "meaningless" adoption of environmental measures, like biodegradable packaging and food miles, that has distracted potential patrons. He sells boxes stuffed with seasonal produce sourced from his own land in South Devon's Dart Valley and co-operative of farmers across the Westcountry. His business's yearly growth has dramatically slowed to just down at least 20%. The same slowdown has not been reported form supermarkets on their organic lines which could show a shift back to supermarket stores for value. According to market research company TNS, farmers are reporting falling requirement for organic eggs, chicken and dairy, whilst organic fruit and beef sales have also slumped.

Belts are being tightened so retailers you need to stand out from the crowd and plan in consumer offers.