SHOPPER WASHOUT
Sales plunge 2.3 per cent across retailers as bad weather prompts Brits to stay home
And online sales — usually less affected by bad weather — fell 1.2 per cent
APRIL showers were a washout for retailers — as shoppers stayed home.
Last month’s sales plunged 2.3 per cent — much more than March’s 0.2, Office For National Statistics figures show.
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Bad weather put shoppers off buying sports equipment, games, toys, and furniture. Fashion and footwear stores were worst hit with a sales dip of 5.1 per cent.
Footfall was down seven per cent, said the British Retail Consortium.
And online sales — usually less affected by bad weather — fell 1.2 per cent.
Consumers were also hit by April price increases of mobile phones and TV subscriptions. Rob Wood — chief UK economist for Pantheon Macroeconomics — said the past three months had seen “relentlessly bad weather”.
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He added: “Rain was 55 per cent above average in February, 20 per cent in March, 68 per cent in April.”
Danni Hewson, head of financial analysis at AJ Bell, said: “The rainfall provided an excuse not to venture out to update spring wardrobes — and not to splash out on outdoor sports equipment that would be left to languish in sheds and garages until things cleared up.”
She said retailers are hoping for a warm summer with “long, dry days filled with BBQs, weddings and people moving house”.
PWC’s Lisa Hooker said Wimbledon, the Euros and Olympics will lift trading.
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