Why Are Our Shopping Centres Still Packed Out ?

[mitchbux]

So, times are meant to be hard, the age of austerity is upon us, job losses, higher bills and higher real inflation.

Why are our shopping centres still so full of people buying tat, are we a nation of credit bingers ?

When will the madness end.

Any thoughts ?

It's the school holidays and like it or not my kids keep on growing.

Of those people that are carrying shopping bags (and I've noticed a lot who are empty-handed) they are mostily parents with uniform/shoes etc. The rest seem to be Primark or Wilkinsons bags.

Edited July 30, 2009 by mitchbux

[mitchbux]

lets hope you are in the perfect house.

My next intended move is either a care home or the undertakers.

[profitofdoom]

It's the school holidays and like it or not my kids keep on growing.

Of those people that are carrying shopping bags (and I've noticed a lot who are empty-handed) they are mostily parents with uniform/shoes etc. The rest seem to Primark or Wilkinsons bags.

The used car trade has been hectic all year.The only limit is the number of cars available and it doesn't really seem to matter what you pay there is always someone waiting to buy them.Contrast with this time last year when things were in the doldrums.People keep giving me the same story,mortgage payments slashed and money to spend.The worrying aspect is that every time I replace a piece of stock it costs more than I paid for the last one.Logic tells you it can't go on,but it does. Just waiting for the bubble to burst.

[grey shark]

unemployed still need to shop.

Yeah it's still free to look in windows and walk in and out of shops and buy nothing .............

[IWantItNow]

sweeping statement nonsense

Are you set for a tracker mortgage payment shock?

by Mortgage Matron Tuesday 19 May, 2009 A few months ago tracker mortgages were practically extinct as lenders withdrew them just days before the first shock interest rate cut.

Now as those pre-rate-cut tracker mortgages begin to expire, many of you with a tracker are in for a surprise!

This is because you could face a payment shock of as much as £7,000 a year in the next two months. This comes even as the Bank of England suggests that the UK’s interest rates could remain low for quite a while.

Mortgage lenders are now warning you to brace for a dramatic leap in your repayments of as much as £583 a month (app. £6,996 a year on a typical £200,000 interest-only mortgage) as loss-making tracker mortgages on offer in 2007 begin to expire.

Because of this, your rates could shoot up from 0% to as much as 3.5% if you default on your lender’s standard variable rate (SVR). On a £500,000 mortgage, you would be looking at a payment shock of £17,496!

Economists believe the Bank of England will keep interest rates at 0.5% until autumn next year and because of this, mortgage lenders therefore said there was less pressure for borrowers to snap up a cheap fixed rate mortgage.

If you are with the Halifax, then you face one of the biggest payment shocks of all!

If you took out its market-leading deal at 0.51% below Bank rate in April and May 2007 you will revert to an SVR of 3.5%. Your monthly payments will rise from £667 to £1,001; that is an increase of £334 a month or £4,008 a year on a £200,000 repayment mortgage.

Sweeping statement nonsense?...come on Bloo Loo, this site is built on that!

As for a £200,000 interest only mortgage, I bet in the grand scheme of things there aren't many of them outside London what with average prices, even at peak, well under that amount.

FWIW, Manchester has never seen a recession IMO, its always fooking packed! Maybe the comment about the benefit class still shopping accounts for that though.

[Bloo Loo]

Sweeping statement nonsense?...come on Bloo Loo, this site is built on that!

As for a £200,000 interest only mortgage, I bet in the grand scheme of things there aren't many of them outside London what with average prices, even at peak, well under that amount.

FWIW, Manchester has never seen a recession IMO, its always fooking packed! Maybe the comment about the benefit class still shopping accounts for that though.

sure, and the sweeping statements are routed out PDQ.

The average newly minted mortgage ( new with tight lending is around £131K) about 5.1 times average earnings.

to say MOST are on these low rates is clearly not true. only a few societies offered them at peak and it was only for a very short time.

and a recession is not about crowds of people, its about businesses selling stuff and employing people.

even Maidstone was packed all the time according to Sibley....but just a quick calc on the population of Maidstone and opening hours showed that on average there would be around 5000 people in town at any one time, and if you go at lunch time its going to be even more.

I feel that crowds in towns is a poor guide to recovery.

now, count the closed and closing shops.....thats a better guide.

[Mrs Bear]

Why are our shopping centres still so full of people buying tat, are we a nation of credit bingers ?

Any thoughts ?

Sales! So if you're anything like a colleague of mine, you have to charge down and buy 7 tops, 3 pairs of trousers and 2 skirts, not because you need them or because they're even particularly nice, but because they're so incredibly cheap! - and you've only got 79 tops, 35 pairs of trousers and 23 skirts at home.

[THE BALD MAN]

sure, and the sweeping statements are routed out PDQ.

The average newly minted mortgage ( new with tight lending is around £131K) about 5.1 times average earnings.

to say MOST are on these low rates is clearly not true. only a few societies offered them at peak and it was only for a very short time.

and a recession is not about crowds of people, its about businesses selling stuff and employing people.

even Maidstone was packed all the time according to Sibley....but just a quick calc on the population of Maidstone and opening hours showed that on average there would be around 5000 people in town at any one time, and if you go at lunch time its going to be even more.

I feel that crowds in towns is a poor guide to recovery.

now, count the closed and closing shops.....thats a better guide.

I live in Maidstone...there are always lots of people around..mainly the unemployed or retired coming or going to the Weatherspoons pub

[Saving For a Space Ship]

The shoppers are not real. The retailers do it with cgi and laser projectors

Edited July 30, 2009 by Saving For a Space Ship

[IWantItNow]

sure, and the sweeping statements are routed out PDQ.

The average newly minted mortgage ( new with tight lending is around £131K) about 5.1 times average earnings.

to say MOST are on these low rates is clearly not true. only a few societies offered them at peak and it was only for a very short time.

and a recession is not about crowds of people, its about businesses selling stuff and employing people.

even Maidstone was packed all the time according to Sibley....but just a quick calc on the population of Maidstone and opening hours showed that on average there would be around 5000 people in town at any one time, and if you go at lunch time its going to be even more.

I feel that crowds in towns is a poor guide to recovery.

now, count the closed and closing shops.....thats a better guide.

Agreed.

[The McGlashan]

Why are our shopping centres still packed out?

From time to time, I review CV's from job applicants. It's astonishing how many list "shopping" under hobbies and interests these days.

[SarahBell]

FWIW, Manchester has never seen a recession IMO, its always fooking packed!

Shoplifters will still be working.

Is Manchester not full of boarded up ex-coffee shops yet?

[blankster]

If unemployment is 7%, that means employment is 93%. If house prices have dropped by 18%, from the peak, they are still 82% of peak level. Also a lot of people are paying much, much lower mortgages. One person I know who has some sort of tracker mortgage has gone from paying hundreds of pounds a month to paying less than £1 per month.

Also, Britain has changed from being a nation of shopkeepers to being a nation of shoppers.

Edited July 30, 2009 by blankster

[crashologist]

Er, they simply aren't. footfall is significantly down pretty much everywhere. A lot of centres have stopped publishing footfall data altogether or claim the counting equipment is broken - seems to be a rash of this. When it was constantly going up it used to be announced with a fanfare.

Also, as others have mentioned footfall doesn't always convert to spending.

The nation have been 'programmed' to shop. Even if they do not have the cash they turn up. I don't expect actual profits to be up though.

Edited July 30, 2009 by crashologist

[SNACR]

Shoplifters will still be working.

Is Manchester not full of boarded up ex-coffee shops yet?

Oddly, it seems shoplifting has either stayed the same or actually gone down. Don't know for certain why. Our guess, after prolonged debate, has been that with less customers in the shops there's less cover for shoplifters ie if they're the only customer in the shop it's quite difficult to nick stuff even with the most unobservant staff.

Edited July 30, 2009 by Soon Not a Chain Retailer

[IWantItNow]

Shoplifters will still be working.

Is Manchester not full of boarded up ex-coffee shops yet?

Empty shops yes...Coffee shops, not so sure. I've been working back in Oldham (or Tescotown) for the last 6 months after spending 4 years working in Manchester and the changes here are stunning and not in a good way.

[crashologist]

Oddly, it seems shoplifting has either stayed the same or actually gone down. Don't know for certain why. Our guess, after prolonged debate, has been that with less customers in the shops there's less cover for shoplifters ie if they're the only customer in the shop it's quite difficult to nick stuff even with the most unobservant staff.

Safety in numbers.

It's probably harder to shoplift when a salesman approaches you with the 'Can I help you?' statement the minute you walk through the door.

[Bloo Loo]

If unemployment is 7%, that means employment is 93%. If house prices have dropped by 18%, from the peak, they are still 82% of peak level. Also a lot of people are paying much, much lower mortgages. One person I know who has some sort of tracker mortgage has gone from paying hundreds of pounds a month to paying less than �1 per month.

Also, Britain has changed from being a nation of shopkeepers to being a nation of shoppers.

if unemployment is 7%, then the actually employed is likely to be 80%. and thats of the employable class.

and yes, we all know 1 person with £1 a month mortgage. Its the other 200 that might be in difficulties.

[Tony2007]

Buying crap to fill ones coop will always remain popular.

For a lot of people there is no life beyond that sole activity.

[juvenal]

The used car trade has been hectic all year.The only limit is the number of cars available and it doesn't really seem to matter what you pay there is always someone waiting to buy them.Contrast with this time last year when things were in the doldrums.People keep giving me the same story,mortgage payments slashed and money to spend.The worrying aspect is that every time I replace a piece of stock it costs more than I paid for the last one.Logic tells you it can't go on,but it does. Just waiting for the bubble to burst.

Talking of s/h cars, my neighbour is a panel beater. He told me today that his small firm folded 2 months back because people couldn't afford to get minor dents done anymore 'because they can't afford the excess payment'.

He's surviving, as his wife has a reasonably well paid job, but his perspective is that things are dire.

When I went back inside to my PC, houseprice's monthly update had arrived. A refurbished two bed detached cottage near me had sold in Apr 2009 at £170K. The owner paid £265K in October 2007. Must have been a forced sale, but a 36% drop? FFS. Somebody has had a real sickener on that one.

[Johnny Storm]

Lots of reasons.

They are nice places to shop, especially when not packed. No big issue, no people begging, or doing surveys. Less scum walking around. You dont get wet during a lovely summer.

As to why people are spending. A large majority of people are feeling no recession. A large number work for the state. No change there. Retired people are still getting their pension.

Its business as usual for most people.

[SNACR]

Lots of reasons.

They are nice places to shop, especially when not packed. No big issue, no people begging, or doing surveys. Less scum walking around. You dont get wet during a lovely summer.

As to why people are spending. A large majority of people are feeling no recession. A large number work for the state. No change there. Retired people are still getting their pension.

Its business as usual for most people.

You don't get much interaction with a broad cross-section of the general public in your day-to-day existence do you?

[geoffk]

next time you are out shopping do a spot the bag research and you will find out that its a illusion...

[Johnny Storm]

You don't get much interaction with a broad cross-section of the general public in your day-to-day existence do you?

Depends what you mean by that. The company I used to work for has gone from 35 people to 12. Most have found other jobs.

If you mean my reference to scum, then no i dont try to interact with the great unwashed.

[dances with sheeple]

So, times are meant to be hard, the age of austerity is upon us, job losses, higher bills and higher real inflation.

Why are our shopping centres still so full of people buying tat, are we a nation of credit bingers ?

When will the madness end.

Any thoughts ?

The madness will end when they start feeding on each other, haven`t you seen "Dawn of the Dead"? The day you walk into Richer Sounds and the salesman is sucking on the bone marrow of the corpse in the corner is the day you break out the leather suit and shotgun shells. Many people are just buying a coffee and milling around, it`s all they know. We are either going to start communicating with each other peacefully,ignoring government,TV, house prices etc in the process, or it is going to get really f*cked up, so far I am hopeful people will just start talking to each other again? For my part I have stopped growling back at dickends who growl at me, I wish them a silent blessing instead, and I smile more if I make eye contact with strangers etc. This is my small contribution, hopefully government, celebrities, and general B.S will take a back seat to people re-connecting with people? (what a load of nonsense, I must be drunk ....again.)