Post-easter blues for Scotland’s high streets

Scottish retailers failed to see a post-easter bounce leading to the toughest month in five years on the high street.

The latest sales monitor from the Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) and KPMG – released today – reveals that total sales in Scotland fell by 3.4 per cent last month, compared with April 2017.

Measured on a like-for-like basis, stripping out the effects of store closures or additional selling space, sales decreased by 3.8 per cent, year-on-year. Ewan Macdonald-russell, head of policy and external affairs at the SRC, said: “Retailers will be feeling decidedly queasy with these post-easter figures.

“Granted April was distorted but it was the toughest month since April 2013 for the industry with a real-terms fall of 2.4 per cent, with shoppers cutting back on both food and non-food purchases. Of particular concern are the nonfood figures, which were the worst single month performance in six years.”