Wednesday 8 September 2010

Statement of things you already knew.


Back to school sales boost retail figures
So says the latest British Retail Consortium figures.

Back to school can't boost sales figures. It is a given sales opportunity, like Valentines. Kids went back to school and the new school year began at this time last year and every year before, since about 1870. Spending might have been higher against the truly dismal August 2009, but that's not the same thing as saying school kids kit out boosted sales.

Not much in the figures, a 1% increase. Where there is some data that supports a long held C@W view is that strong
web presence is essential. "Internet, mail order and phone sales grew in August to 17.8% year-on-year growth, up from 11.3% last month, and above the average for the last 12 months."

The rest is as expected. TV's stopped shifting after the lousy South Africa performance, and beer and burgers fell back once the sun went in.
"Computers and laptops were given a lift by back-to-school and college deals. "
Really? How surprising. I'd add that both Toys 'r' Us and Clinton Cards are expecting to see an increase in business in December.

Retail still looks likely to be flat to a very small gain for the rest of 2010.

{Anecdotally, Toys, which accounts for only about 10% of BQ industries sales have been terrible. I don't pay them too much attention as they are really just filler lines. But at least 50% down over the key school holidays. A lot are SOR now, but still. Awful figures.
Noticed Sainsbury's and Asda had a sale on toys very early in the summer.
Wonder if they had noticed a significant fall off too?
The toy reps haven't even been on the phone telling us what the 'big new thing' is for Xmas. I expect Xbox Kinetic, a system to make XBOX like the Wii. Adult and kids games in one package... Bad news for Nintendo, who's own 3-d DSI looks unavailable until the following Xmas.
BQ's hot tip last January about an Iplayer/freeview/internet combi box looks like fantasy}

2 comments:

Steven_L said...

beer and burgers fell back once the sun went in

And ... if you go to Tesco now, you can get 20 stubby premium French lagers for £5.99 and 4 fresh beefburgers for £1.50!

Happy days!

James Higham said...

I see Christmas cards appearing too.