Lockdown Hammers U.K. High Street Stores as Retail Sales Slump
Total retail sales slumped 27% in the two weeks following the government’s order to stay at home.
(Bloomberg) -- The U.K. coronavirus lockdown’s chilling effect on the economy was laid bare in data Thursday that showed the sudden turnaround in fortune for the Britain’s high streets.
Total retail sales slumped 27% in the two weeks following the government’s order to stay at home with only essential shopping, work and exercise permitted, according to the British Retail Consortium. That compares to a 12% increase in the first three weeks of March as households stocked up on goods.
“The retail industry is at the epicenter and the tremors will be felt for a long while yet,” said Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the BRC. “Hundreds of thousands of jobs at are risk within these companies and their supply chains.”
Sales fell 4.3% on a total basis last month, the biggest drop in data going back to 1995, the BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor showed.
Online non-food sales jumped 19%, while sales of computers, board games and fitness equipment also spiked as Brits prepared for weeks of lockdown.
Separate data from Barclaycard -- which oversees almost half the nation’s card transactions -- showed spending at specialist food and drink stores such as off licences and greengrocers jumped 80% in the week before the lockdown began. Digital and content subscriptions also rose.
Consumers said they were the least confident about the U.K. economy since the survey began in 2014.
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