Sept retail sales +0.6%

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

doire wrote: »

Oh dear....

Argos-owner Home Retail Group sees profits fall sharply

Yet just across the road.....

Department store group Debenhams has reported a rise in full year profits and confirmed plans to open new stores.

The new boss of department store chain Debenhams has insisted the UK high street was "alive and well" as he announced plans to modernise a further 25 stores and open nine new outlets over the next four years.

Still, it's probably just the "plenty more Sales" that are boosting their numbers, as the high street is "struggling".

The expansion update came as the firm said pre-tax profits increased 10% to £166.1 million in the 53 weeks to September 3 as it benefited from selling more of its higher margin exclusive ranges.

Oh dear indeed....

Joe_Bloggs

I went to Tescos yesterday looking for 500 million pounds worth of reductions. They were all out of stock. Those pumpkins are a bargain at two for three pound. I wonder if they will be able to give them away if they just rot in place.
J_B.

shortchanged_2

And the award for the book cookers of the year goes to..............................the ONS!!!

Rinoa

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

(Reuters) - Retail sales grew more than expected in September after a surprise increase in sa les of laptops and video games, the Office for National Statistics

said on Thursday.

The ONS said sales volumes including automotive fuel rose by 0.6 percent on the month after a fall of 0.4 percent in August, giving an annual rise of 0.6 percent. Analysts had forecast flat sales on the month and an annual rise of 0.7 percent.

Excluding fuel, retail sales went up 0.7 percent on the month and were 0.4 percent higher on the year, above analyst s' expectations for the monthly rise.

The figures offer a rare bit of good news for British retailers which otherwise have been struggling. Rising prices, muted wage growth and government austerity measures have forced shoppers to rein in purchases not only of non-essential goods but also of groceries, traditionally the most resilient area of spending.

Sales at 'other stores' rose by 2.3 percent on the month, the biggest increase since October 2010, which the ONS said was largely down to back-to-school sales of laptops and a number of big video game launches.

When the only comment Graham has concerns his school protractor, we can safely assume these are encouraging figures.

shortchanged_2

Does Alastair Campbell work for the ONS now?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zJv5qLsLYoo

HAMISH_MCTAVISH

Rinoa wrote: »

we can safely assume these are encouraging figures.

Surprisingly so, all things considered.

The media has been full of doom and gloom in Sept.

And of course clothing sales were off due to the weather.;)

Pimperne1

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

As per title.

Is this part of the "misery index"?

FTBFun

shortchanged wrote: »

And the award for the book cookers of the year goes to..............................the ONS!!!

I take it you'll be providing your obviously much more accurate figures then?

Mallotum_X

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

Surprisingly so, all things considered.

The media has been full of doom and gloom in Sept.

Non-store retailing, including online purchases, rose by 15.5% over the year as a whole

The ONS estimates that internet sales accounted for 9.6% of all retail spending in September, excluding petrol.

High street not dead? maybe not dead but it would seem on these figures its still in decline. From the figures on Internet trading all of the increase from last year could be explained by increased net activity. Which would also help explain the poor results from Argos. People are still spending it would seem but using the net more - presumably at lower margins for the retailers.

HAMISH_MCTAVISH wrote: »

And of course clothing sales were off due to the weather.;)

However, textile, clothing and footware sales volumes were 2.1% lower than in the previous year, the sector's biggest annual fall since April 2008.

"That's quite bad for what they would expect that month," ONS statistician Aileen Simkins told the BBC.

"September's retail sales figures are a bit stronger than we and the consensus had expected, but hardly suggest that conditions are back to normal on the High Street," said Samuel Tombs, UK economist at Capital Economics.
"Most of the monthly rise in sales in September... reflected a bounce back from August's weak sales, which were probably depressed a bit by the riots at the start of the month."

shortchanged_2

FTBFun wrote: »

I take it you'll be providing your obviously much more accurate figures then?

Yes. Retail sales down by 0.5%.

Sources: (Open Your Eyes and Look Around (OYELA), Wake Up and Smell the Coffee (WUSC), No Spin and Bull (NSB) & The Only Real Yet Supressed Household Income Theory (TORYSHIT)).