You might want to get done with holiday shopping early this year.
Should the perfidious weather continue, it may be empty shelves for last-minute shoppers. The busiest Christmas weekend made customers shy away as blocked roads, freezing temperatures and snow proved to be difficult for stock deliveries more so in hard-to-reach towns.
Really bad weather conditions forced Brent Cross’ 120 stores shopping centre to close on Saturday. Over the weekend, on Regent, Oxford and Bond streets, the 600 retailers representing the New West End Company had less than expected shoppers from the estimated 1.2 million, a figure based from last year.
Waitrose grocery chain experienced 11% in low sales on Saturday, while John Lewis had a 10% decline.
Last-minute shoppers may be left empty-handed because retail analysts fear that shops may not have enough in stock. Plus the difficulty is high getting to out-of-town shopping centres where the only way in is by road travel. Shops running out of stock have yet to be reported though.
Howard Archer, HIS Global Insight chief UK economist said that the supply chains have been massively hit by the snow and ice this month, with many products being stuck at container ports for an extended period. He added that deliveries are going to be hit by this weekend’s weather and that a lot is going to depend on the weather in the coming week, which isn’t looking good at the moment.
Richard Perks, the director of retail research at the Verdict consultancy said that there is generally an efficient distribution system in Britain but fresh food stores could suffer from the weather conditions. Because of the weather, he was still furious at the non-delivery of a bottle of wine ordered online.
Tesco and Marks & Spencer are confident with their stores’ stock delivery and do not foresee inventory running out until Christmas.
Andrew Murphy, retail director for John Lewis admitted to Saturday night delivery delays but remains confident that the supplies have reached their destinations on time. He said though that while retailers are faced with the coming days’ extreme weather condition problems, there may be a shortage of stock in several areas.
Once the weather improves, Archer said many people may take a day off to do last-minute shopping. Retailers may be forced to cut prices to move product.
Center for Economics and Business Research chief economic think tank executive Douglas McWilliams said January sales may start before Christmas this year which will put pressure on the retailers’ profits.
Hit hard by the latest weather condition, radical price cuts prior to Christmas is bad news for retailers and far flung shopping malls. Deliveries of online purchases have been either cancelled or delayed because of difficulty reaching their destinations.
As shoppers feared non-deliveries of online orders or getting stuck on the road trying to get in or out of out-of-town centres, visited traditional high street centres instead. This has softened the blow of the bad weather condition for high street centres.
