Locally yesterday’s spree looked like a one day wonder this afternoon. In Wokingham there were long queues in Woolworths to pay small sums for items that are now heavily discounted and well thumbed through, but not a lot else going on. In Bracknell the furniture sheds were short of paying customers and the electrical and DIY shops far from busy. The MFI store looked forlorn. The car parks were half empty, which looks poor by Saturday standards.
It is true, as some have remarked on this site, that the big cuts in mortgage rates and the fall in petrol prices is helping those with the larger mortgages. At the same time the big reductions in interest rates is hitting many retired people who looked to the interest on their savings to supplement their pensions. What the shops might gain from the former they are going to more than lose from the latter, especially as many of the younger families are worried about job security and feeling they have to repay some of the debts.
December 27, 2008
Hey Ho, I live within my means and live within my savings . I have just been royally rogered with low interest rates.I dont intend to help any more.I will not spend. What are you going to do about that ?,I am the only one with money.
December 28, 2008
Yes, some of the worst post boxing day sales figures. Those retailers who’ve cut their margin to shreds with heavy markdowns and Woolworths firesale are sucking out a lot of the spend available to the detriment of more viable businesses. The first tranche of Woolworths closed yesterday and were running a genuine 90% off everything this had a particularly negative effect in the small market towns.
I see product growth areas in wheelbarrows, so we can get our quantitive easing to the shops, and, for when people finally get fed up of the government making them poor and oppressed, pitchforks. Shops in Westminster might find a surprise demand for streetlamp to gallows conversion kits.