Craft Business

Despite an unexpected rise in sales during May, industry experts remained pessimistic about the economic situation and attributed the increase in sales to sunny weather. The recent report confirms fears that the boost was a one-off and could not be sustained. The only sector to show growth was food and drink. Clothing, footwear, furniture and homewares all showed a significant drop in sales. Director of British Retail Consortium (BRC), Stephen Robertson, says “The negative result confirms fears May’s modest like-for-like sales growth was a start-of-summer blip. While total retail sales grew in June, that was by less than half last month’s figure. June saw like-for-like food sales up on a year ago but that was compared with suppressed sales in June 2007, the wettest on record. Almost all other retail sectors recorded falls with electricals, DIY and homewares the worst hit and furniture sales falling faster than for three years.”

Owner of Jencel Beads, Celia Pinnington, says “I have definitely noticed it being particularly quiet over the past month so I am not very surprised by the recent results. People are generally making less journeys and the roads are much quieter because of the increasing petrol prices. I found it very hard to believe the reports about the May figures. I actually think we may be in for a period of major change, I don't think this will just be an economical recession but a time for change in relation to our lifestyle-choices as well as our values.”

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