–BRC: UK Nov Like-for-Like Sales 0.7% y/y; Total 2.8% y/y
–BRC UK Sep-Nov Like-for-Like Sales 0.6% y/y; Total 2.5% y/y

LONDON, (MNI) – UK retail sales values increased just 0.7% on a
like-for-like basis in November, slightly lower than October’s rate of
0.8%, as consumers worry about their job security, according to the
monthly retail sales monitor from the British Retail Consortium-KPMG.

The BRC survey found total retail sales rose 2.8% on the year, up
from a 2.4% increase in October.

In the September through November period like-for-like sales rose
0.6% on the year versus a 0.7% reading on the same basis in the prior
month. Total sales rose 2.5% in the three months through November, the
same rate of increase as in August through October.

Clothing and footwear also had a better month, helped by colder
weather. Homewares slowed, showing a larger year-on-year decline than in
October, sales were still often discount-driven, with big-ticket items
affected by consumer uncertainty over job cuts and income prospects, the
BRC said.

Non-food sales fell 0.5% on a like-for-like 3-month-weighted
average year-on-year basis having dropped 0.2% in the three months
through October.

Food retail sales rose 2.2% on a like-for-like 3-month-weighted
average year-on-year basis from September to November, slightly higher
than the 2.1% rise seen in August to October.

With the BRC data based on sales values, the rise in food sales
could well simply reflect rising food price inflation, the BRC said.

“The star performer for non-food was footwear as the cold snap
kicked in. Retailers will be hoping things pick up significantly in the
final weeks, although regaining ground lost in the early run-up to
Christmas is difficult,” Helen Dickinson, Head of Retail at KPMG, said.

“Christmas trading is expected to peak later, with online becoming
a much larger part of the equation and post-Christmas sales being
critical to December’s results readiness and performance in all will be
important to retailer’s fortunes,” she said.

“As always, there will be winners and losers – the balance between
them is delicately poised and now in the hands of consumers,” she added.

–London newsroom: 4420 7862 7492; email: ukeditorial@marketnews.com

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