1
2
3
4
5
6
7
8
9
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34
35
36
37
38
39
40
41
42
43
44
45
46
47
48
49
50
51
52
53
54
55
56
57
58
59
60
61
62
63
64
65
66
67
68
69
70
71
72
73
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98
99
100
101
102
103
104
105
106
107
108
109
110
111
112
113
114
115
116
117
118
119
120
121
122
123
124
125
126
127
128
129
130
131
132
133
134
135
136
137
138
139
140 
Retailers still upbeat despite drop in year-on-year footfall
Page 49
If you've noticed an error in this article please click here to report it so we can fix it.
THE NON-FOOD RETAIL sector was hit particularly hard in August, with the Synovate Retail Traffic Index recording a drop of 2.9% in retail footfall year on year and a 2.2% drop since July '09.
However, the Confederation of British Industry (CBI) says that although stock levels are low and that more redundancies were shown in its quarterly sector review than in May, retailers were still feeling less pessimistic about the coming months. Although a third said sales were up, more than half said they fell and this is likely to be repeated in September's figures.
The CBI says: After an 18-month period of distinctly negative business sentiment, retailers are no longer feeling quite so pessimistic about the outlook for their general business situation.
The balance of firms expecting a deterioration over the next three months is very modest, and the Least negative since November 2007."
Hauliers will need to work carefully with retail customers in the pre-Christmas rush. Stock levels for all items are much lower than in previous years. If consumer demand does pick up, extra resources might be needed in order to ship non-seasonal items, as well as Christmas goods.
With retailers likely to remain cautious in their early autumn forecasts, it could be that the Christmas delivery schedules will be pushed forward towards Christmas itself in order for them to assess demand.