Panic Buying Gives U.K. Stores Late Boost in Poor Month

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U.K. retailers hit by strong winds and heavy rainfall in February received a late boost from panic buying by Britons worried about the coronavirus.

Stores reported people stockpiling food and health-care products late in the month in case they were forced to self-isolate in an effort to stop the virus spreading, the British Retail Consortium said Tuesday.

But the month as a whole was marred by a series of storms -- Ciara, Dennis and Jorge -- with fashion particularly badly affected by the wettest February on record. Overall sales fell 0.4% from a year earlier on a like-for-like basis, and sales including newly opened stores gained just 0.1%, the latest BRC-KPMG Retail Sales Monitor shows.

Britons stepped up hoarding in March but the coronavirus could hit retailers hard if consumers continue to stay away from public places for fear of infection and if supply chains are disrupted.

The sector has already been squeezed by the rise of online shopping, and the BRC urged Chancellor of the Exchequer Rishi Sunak to throw a lifeline in Wednesday’s budget by easing the burden of business rates, a tax on commercial properties.

Sales grew modestly in the three months through February, though the figures were boosted by a later-than-usual Black Friday, the report found.

To contact the reporter on this story: Andrew Atkinson in London at a.atkinson@bloomberg.net

To contact the editors responsible for this story: Fergal O'Brien at fobrien@bloomberg.net, Lucy Meakin

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