Seasonal showers

7 March 2017 By Carol Ryan

Rising food and fuel costs are forcing shoppers to spend less on clothing and other discretionaries. That is bad news for stores that are already having to cut prices to attract business. With their own costs going up, retailers are about to be squeezed on multiple fronts.

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Non-food retail sales in the three months to February declined by 0.4 percent on a like-for-like basis, the first fall over a three-month period since November 2011, the British Retail Consortium said on March 7. Food sales increased by 0.6 percent on a like-for-like basis in the period.

“The persistent weak sales performance of several non-food categories points to an undeniable trend of cautious spending on non-essential items,” BRC chief executive Helen Dickinson said.

Non-food prices fell by 1.8 percent in February compared with a year earlier, data from the BRC showed on March 1. That was less than the 2.3 percent decline reported for January.

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