Good news at last?: retail sales bounce

[Roach-Rampino]

Strong food sales and hefty discounting drove a surprise rise in retail sales last month after eight months of declines, providing a ray of hope for beleaguered retailers.


Like-for-like retail sales rose 1.1 per cent in January, revealed the British Retail Consortium-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor, the first such increase since May 2008, when balmy weather boosted sales. The rise was fuelled by a 5.1 per cent increase in food sales, buoyed by higher prices and strong demand for items such as sausages and casserole meats during the cold weather. Non-food sales fell by 1.6 per cent last month, but this was slower than the rate of falls in previous months.

Stephen Robertson, director general of the BRC, said: "These surprisingly good figures give some room for optimism." But he warned: "The fundamentals haven't changed. Job fears are mounting. Consumer con-fidence is at record lows. It remains to be seen whether January's discount-driven growth was just a blip."



Source

[Roach-Rampino]

My cousin's repsonse to this article:

"mistake to think this is good news. it is a reflection of changing
consumer demand that is very typical in a recession. food sales are
higher due to people eating at home more, made more attractive by the fact
everything has been discounted to wholesale prices. this sort of business
is negative for the broad economy. debt issuance, debt inflation and
complete restoration of credit markets against backdrop of consumer
lending from strong fiscal balance sheet are the pre-requisites for an
upturn - then again what do i know............."

[BBK]

The longer we are in recession the better is is long term for the consumer - well thats my limited view opinion anyway . Of course, no jobs doesn't help, but Id much rather see the government put effort into sorting that out than funding billions into banks.

[Roach-Rampino]

The longer we are in recession the better is is long term for the consumer - well thats my limited view opinion anyway . Of course, no jobs doesn't help, but Id much rather see the government put effort into sorting that out than funding billions into banks.

Well I said this to my cousin in response to his first comment:

"How bad do you think this is? Is it being over-sensationalised by the media?"


His response:

"think we are on the very edge.......
the longer the governments take to act in restoring the foundations for
credit and financial stabilization the greater the risk we go over the
cliff. think it is real, think it is close."

[DJ OD]

Reckon it will get worse before it gets better. Public opinions need to change as well as gov sorting out the mess.

We need to lose the attitude like... There's a new 32" LCD TV out, I'll go and buy it. I'll stick it on my card. It's a kind of "Keeping up with the Jones'" attitude. We are wasteful and we spend out of our means too much. It was inevitable a recession would happen.

Can't see this gov doing it tho. They'll plod on doing the bare minimum until people desert them and elect a conservative gov. They will then pick up the pieces, be hailed for it, before making their own cock ups. Historically things like this follow that kind of pattern, both in the UK and other modern world countries.

My 2p


DJ OD

[CominAtcha]

Just out of interest. What's the worst that can happen?

[4me2]

The longer we are in recession the better is is long term for the consumer - well thats my limited view opinion anyway . Of course, no jobs doesn't help, but Id much rather see the government put effort into sorting that out than funding billions into banks.

Without the banks nothing can operate.

[4me2]

"How bad do you think this is? Is it being over-sensationalised by the media?"

Show me something that isn't oversensationalised by the media now days.

[4me2]

We need to lose the attitude like... There's a new 32" LCD TV out, I'll go and buy it. I'll stick it on my card. It's a kind of "Keeping up with the Jones'" attitude.

Quite the opposite actually if people stop buying then people lose their jobs because there is no demand for products. Ofcourse it has to be done in a responsible manner where people are not granted loans who have very little chance of being able to pay them back.