interestrateripoff Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/05/uk-shop-prices-fall-january-sales-deflation-brc-nielsen Prices in Britain's shops fell at the fastest rate in more than seven years in January as retailers resorted to aggressive discounting on clothing, furniture and electrical goods to encourage consumers back into stores after the festive period.Shop price deflation accelerated to 1% last month from 0.8% in December according to the British Retail Consortium/Nielsen shop price index, as January sales were deeper than usual. It was the ninth consecutive month of falling prices and the sharpest deflation rate on record since the series began in December 2006. Helen Dickinson, the BRC's director general, said: "January is always a key month for sales and promotions but discounts have been deeper and more widespread than last year and we are seeing this trend continuing. "Our figures show that there have been particularly good deals to be had in clothing, furniture and electrical items this month as retailers prepare for their new collections." Great if you want to eat clothing or furniture.... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
TheCountOfNowhere Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 http://www.theguardi...ion-brc-nielsen Great if you want to eat clothing or furniture.... Thankfully housing has shot up in ( asking ) price to compensate, luckily we don't need any form of shelter to survive. Vote Tory...Vote for immigration/bankers/high tax/funny money/state borrowing/war/u-turns/weakness/poverty. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 What are the prices like in the £shops at the moment? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Great if you want to eat clothing or furniture.... ....or sell clothes and furniture and buy something to eat. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 What are the prices like in the £shops at the moment? Shrinking.......that is for everything that costs a pound you are getting less for your money........could half it again and charge 50p. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SarahBell Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Shrinking.......that is for everything that costs a pound you are getting less for your money........could half it again and charge 50p. They are not as good value as they used to be. There's an online one now. http://www.hereforapound.com Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 They are not as good value as they used to be. There's an online one now. http://www.hereforapound.com Yes, some of their stuff is only fit for the bin..... I have also seen something they are selling for a pound that you can buy in waitrose for less than a pound, like for like. These shops are good for some things, things that are usually only on sale until the stock has gone....probably bought at as a job lot, or fire sale....I think anyone who shops there has to be selective in what they buy, there are good deals to be had, but not everything is value for money. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
The Masked Tulip Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I was looking to buy some trainers before Christmas and decided to wait till the sales - in the sales they went up 20 quid and have stayed that way. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I was looking to buy some trainers before Christmas and decided to wait till the sales - in the sales they went up 20 quid and have stayed that way. Ah, but people spend more money in the sales....and a 'sale' means all prices are reduced...don't they. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
dances with sheeple Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Good quality stuff on sale at Sainsburys all the time, decent shirts tops etc. super cheap, it will be very hard to put the deflation genie back in the bottle IMO. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
porca misèria Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Well, furniture's mildly interesting, but prices on clothing and electrical goods have been coming down for at least a generation. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Well, furniture's mildly interesting, but prices on clothing and electrical goods have been coming down for at least a generation. Good furniture never wears out....smaller homes do not have the room to store excess...fewer homes being built...fewer homes being created or set up......more people sharing the same furniture, sitting on the same sofa. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Self Employed Youth Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Shop near me had a sign up over XMAS - "beat the price rises, buy now". I laughed and said there will be deflation and they will reduce prices. A month later and they have reduced prices quite considerably, and have posters up advertising the sale. I expect prices to fall again. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashmonitor Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) CPI might fall below 2% then come this month's release. Always falls in January, but may be more than usual. http://www3.hants.gov.uk/finance/retailpricesindexandconsumerpriceindex.htm last year fell from 125.0-124.4 MOM. (Meanwhile have to rely on Hants because the NOS site is so bloody user unfriendly and is incapable of providing simple charts on the home page) Edited February 5, 2014 by crashmonitor Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
billybong Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Apart from shop prices the FTSE100 ended down over January (Jan1st - Jan 31st) and they do say that's usually a down signal for shares for the whole year. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
crashmonitor Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 Apart from shop prices the FTSE100 ended down over January (Jan1st - Jan 31st) and they do say that's usually a down signal for shares for the whole year. Totally out of the Market at the moment so hope so. Will get in at sub 6000, if we ever get there. Deflation all round bring it on. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
wonderpup Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) I came across this interesting take on the state of US retail; 1. As the cost of big-ticket household expenses such as healthcare, energy, college, etc. rises while real income declines for the bottom 90%, households have less disposable income to spend on excess consumption--another tattoo, skinny-triple-mocha-fudge-lattes, 13th pair of shoes, etc.2. The rise of eCommerce is eroding the desire to drive to the mall, strip mall, etc. when the goods can be delivered to one's door by the Brown Truck Store (Mark G.'s phrase). 3. As anchor chain stores and other key retailers reduce inventory and slash investment in maintenance and store improvement, the attractiveness of these physical places declines dramatically. Shopping in a decaying sepulchral cavern with little inventory on the shelves is not very appealing. 4. As chains close anchor stores in malls, foot traffic declines and the feeding chain of smaller retailers starves. The "cool/fun" factor of a mall declines exponentially with store closings. It's just not much fun to stroll through a huge space filled with closed storefronts and few other shoppers. In fact it can be a quite depressing experience. The financial self-reinforcing dynamics are equally pernicious. Correspondent Chris H. (U.K.) recently described the precarious dependence of property valuations on long-term leases: The book value of the properties is based on the attainable rents. If just one property in the portfolio has to settle for a lower long-term rental rate, that will devalue the entire 'book to market' portfolio. Just a few low 'book to market' evidence-based valuations and the whole sector could collapse. http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan14/dead-malls1-14.html Most of that probably holds true for UK retail as well. The psychological points he makes are interesting- if a main reason for visiting a bricks and mortar shopping mall- as opposed to purchasing on line- is the 'ambiance' and buzz of being in a positive and energized environment then anything that erodes that experience-like closed down stores and lower footfalls- will tend toward a self reinforcing spiral as people begin to find these places less and less rewarding to visit. A good example of this is Maidenhead Town centre- it used to be a vibrant place to visit- now it mostly resembles some post apocalyptic zombie movie where a handful of shuffling zombies wander aimlessly past closed down shops or desperately contrived 'craft stores' in which local art students play at retail for a peppercorn rent. And there is a wider implication to any decline in bricks and mortar retail in my view, which is that the 'impulse purchase' aspect of a day out at the shops is less present on line- buying stuff online is less a social activity and more a solitary vice- and as such the decline in real world shopping could lead to a wider decline in consumption in general as that impulse purchase is less likely to be made. We have all seen those programs where some sad woman has a house bursting with unopened stuff that she bought when out shopping- unopened because the point of the purchases was the rush she got from being in that shop at that moment and making the purchase- the actual thing in the bag is just wet dream residue- it was the high she got from the act of buying that she paid for. Does anyone think that hitting the 'buy now' button on Amazon while slumped on the sofa will replicate that experience for her? I don't think it will. So the decline in bricks and mortar retail may precipitate a wider decline in 'retail therapy' as a past time with the implication that outfits like amazon have a far more symbiotic connection to the traditional retailers than is generally supposed. Edited February 5, 2014 by wonderpup Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
winkie Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 (edited) Retail therapy is no longer therapy....... Far too much stuff people don't need.....to much hassel and cost to go to an artificial climate, with artificial light, traffic congestion and headache......... Localism is where it is going, the personal touch, local stores that will sell what you ask them to sell....waking distance, post office and pick up internet purchases. Edited February 5, 2014 by winkie Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Travisher Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 "The book value of the properties is based on the attainable rents. If just one property in the portfolio has to settle for a lower long-term rental rate, that will devalue the entire 'book to market' portfolio. Just a few low 'book to market' evidence-based valuations and the whole sector could collapse." A parade of shops in up market Virginia Water was struggling under the business rates and tenants were getting desperate. The landlord's reaction was to put up the rents because this would maintain the book to market value. So a rapidly emptying row of shops is supposedly worth more than one full of tenants paying rent. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
gf3 Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I imagine that with lots more people renting that must cut down on the amount that people buy. If you end up having to move all the time the less you have to pack the better. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mugwump Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 http://www.theguardian.com/business/2014/feb/05/uk-shop-prices-fall-january-sales-deflation-brc-nielsen Great if you want to eat clothing or furniture.... I find that I sometimes enjoy a deep fried sideboard, or perhaps a lightly toasted sofa, especially when accompanied by a creamed polyester jacket, and washed down by a nice glass of softeneur de fabrique. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 "The book value of the properties is based on the attainable rents. If just one property in the portfolio has to settle for a lower long-term rental rate, that will devalue the entire 'book to market' portfolio. Just a few low 'book to market' evidence-based valuations and the whole sector could collapse." A parade of shops in up market Virginia Water was struggling under the business rates and tenants were getting desperate. The landlord's reaction was to put up the rents because this would maintain the book to market value. So a rapidly emptying row of shops is supposedly worth more than one full of tenants paying rent. I'm afraid the landlord's reaction is sort of rational. Unfortunately, decreased rents are not an option for the over-leveraged commercial property landlord twunt. Lower rents won't help in the end though just delaying the inevitable. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
SNACR Posted February 5, 2014 Share Posted February 5, 2014 I came across this interesting take on the state of US retail; http://www.oftwominds.com/blogjan14/dead-malls1-14.html Most of that probably holds true for UK retail as well. The psychological points he makes are interesting- if a main reason for visiting a bricks and mortar shopping mall- as opposed to purchasing on line- is the 'ambiance' and buzz of being in a positive and energized environment then anything that erodes that experience-like closed down stores and lower footfalls- will tend toward a self reinforcing spiral as people begin to find these places less and less rewarding to visit. A good example of this is Maidenhead Town centre- it used to be a vibrant place to visit- now it mostly resembles some post apocalyptic zombie movie where a handful of shuffling zombies wander aimlessly past closed down shops or desperately contrived 'craft stores' in which local art students play at retail for a peppercorn rent. And there is a wider implication to any decline in bricks and mortar retail in my view, which is that the 'impulse purchase' aspect of a day out at the shops is less present on line- buying stuff online is less a social activity and more a solitary vice- and as such the decline in real world shopping could lead to a wider decline in consumption in general as that impulse purchase is less likely to be made. We have all seen those programs where some sad woman has a house bursting with unopened stuff that she bought when out shopping- unopened because the point of the purchases was the rush she got from being in that shop at that moment and making the purchase- the actual thing in the bag is just wet dream residue- it was the high she got from the act of buying that she paid for. Does anyone think that hitting the 'buy now' button on Amazon while slumped on the sofa will replicate that experience for her? I don't think it will. So the decline in bricks and mortar retail may precipitate a wider decline in 'retail therapy' as a past time with the implication that outfits like amazon have a far more symbiotic connection to the traditional retailers than is generally supposed. This is sort of true. It definitely is the case you can't shift an eye-catching, impulse buy, type product online the way you can by the checkout instore. However, there are lots of upsides to online where more stuff sells for other reasons like choice and availability. It may be that online impulse selling gets better. Currently someone buying a personal attack alarm might not be as interested in buying a book about Britain's most prolific rapists as Amazon's algorithm thinks but once it's improved I think computers will be much more reliably able to up or cross sell than human shop staff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
(Blizzard) Posted February 6, 2014 Share Posted February 6, 2014 This is sort of true. It definitely is the case you can't shift an eye-catching, impulse buy, type product online the way you can by the checkout instore. However, there are lots of upsides to online where more stuff sells for other reasons like choice and availability. It may be that online impulse selling gets better. Currently someone buying a personal attack alarm might not be as interested in buying a book about Britain's most prolific rapists as Amazon's algorithm thinks but once it's improved I think computers will be much more reliably able to up or cross sell than human shop staff. Maybe true, but also worth bearing in mind that unwanted purchases are economically destructive. It's actually better for the economy if people aren't tricked into buying things. The real economy that is, not the fantasy economy of the men in suits. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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