Shop horror as sales are hit by a record fall
RETAIL sales fell by a record amount last month as hundreds of thousands of businesses were forced to shut up shop to help tackle coronavirus. The total volume of sales plummeted by 18.1 per cent compared to the previous months, said the Office for National Statistics. The clothing sector was the hardest hit, plunging by 50.2 per cent compared with March. Sales from household goods stores fell 45.4 per cent, on the back of an 8.7 per cent drop from February to March. There was a fall for supermarkets of 2.8 per cent, having seen sales increase 10.4 per cent in March – partly through panic buying. The only sectors making hay in the current climate were non-store retailing, such as online only and catalogue businesses, and off licences. Non-store retailing saw rises of 18 per cent, while off licences saw sales increase by 2.3 per cent. The proportion spent online rose to 30.7 per cent last month, the highest on record. Jonathan Athow, ONS deputy national statistician for economic statistics, said: “The effects of Covid-19 have contributed to a record monthly fall in retail sales of nearly a fifth.” Dr Kerstin Braun, president of trade finance provider Stenn Group, predicted that the pandemic would change the retail landscape forever. She said: “A record number of people joined the unemployment ranks in April and some eight million are receiving 80 per cent pay through the furlough programme, which has been extended until the end of October. “This is not an environment for free-wheeling consumer spending.”