How strong really is the UK recovery?

Loughton_Monkey

purch wrote: »

That's why Gen bought his missus the paracetamol :eek:

I thought Evening Primrose Oil was a better solution...

chewmylegoff

Loughton_Monkey wrote: »

I thought Evening Primrose Oil was a better solution...

Cheaper than a bottle of prosecco anyway.

Loughton_Monkey

chewmylegoff wrote: »

Cheaper than a bottle of prosecco anyway.

I prefer the real stuff from Epernay, but good Cava's and Prosecco's are OK to put into Mrs LM's Aperol Spritzers in the summer.

We did have a bottle of Prosecco left over from last year's Italy holiday. Went into the fish sauce New Year's Eve.

Salute!

Graham_Devon

chewmylegoff wrote: »

either that or debenhams just had a rubbish christmas trading period. will be interesting to see the results for all the other big retailers over the next couple of weeks or so, but it's a bit early to declare that there is no real recovery just because debenhams aren't doing that well.

Sainsburys have stated Christmas this year was the toughest year ever:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10557693/Sainsburys-boss-says-Christmas-was-toughest-ever.html

Mothercare ae looking to close more stores too, after a difficult trading period. The shares only lost 30% today....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25649283

Doesn't seem to be isolated to Debenhams.

shortchanged_2

To be fair though graham, Mothercare has been on borrowed time for way too long. I'm amazed they've continued to trade to this point in time.

DaveTheMus

As strong as Danny Alexander's chin...

purch

In non-food, Sainsbury’s sold more than 250,000 Christmas jumpers and 300,000 onesies

Well there are still some people spending on non essential cr*p :eek:

Generali

Well the BRC data come out on Friday but in the meantime, here something for the lovers of doom to salivate over while I dig out an old Deflation Watch thread:

http://uk.mobile.reuters.com/article/idUKBREA0700320140108?irpc=932

LONDON (Reuters) - British high street stores offered their biggest pre-Christmas discounts in at least seven years last month, industry figures showed on Wednesday, highlighting tough trading conditions despite an improving economy.

moneyistooshorttomention

I thought this apparent "recovery" was partly down to savers spending our savings before they get nicked (whether by a Cyprus-style haircut = direct theft by the Government) or the gradual inch by inch theft from us not being paid enough interest on our savings to even keep pace with inflation.

In which case said apparent "recovery" gets to be over as soon as that daft Help to Buy Scheme has had whatever effect it has on the economy and us savers have spent all our spare savings to protect ourselves as far as possible from them being stolen off us.

wotsthat

Graham_Devon wrote: »

Sainsburys have stated Christmas this year was the toughest year ever:
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/newsbysector/retailandconsumer/10557693/Sainsburys-boss-says-Christmas-was-toughest-ever.html

Mothercare ae looking to close more stores too, after a difficult trading period. The shares only lost 30% today....
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/business-25649283

Doesn't seem to be isolated to Debenhams.

Sainsburys yesterday reported their 36th quarter of consecutive growth. The week before Christmas was their busiest ever trading period. Not only that all the skint people pushed the boat out and upgraded to their Taste the Difference range which was 10% up.

The rest of the skint people were keeping Waitrose busy and even Co-op (the UK's poorest value retailer) was up. Tesco are likely to have done badly (I've been saying for a while that things are going wrong).

I'll bet Aldi and Lidl were smokin' over Christmas too.

There's a recovery underway. It won't happen in a straight lines so the bumps along the way are just that - they aren't evidence of impending doom.