How warm winter has plunged the High Street into crisis
Nobody wants to buy woollies ... because it’s still T-shirt weather!
SHOPS are offering desperate discounts to shift their winter clothes – as Britain looks set for the warmest December in almost 70 years.
The unseasonably mild weather has dented sales figures as shoppers delay buying jumpers and coats. Wet and windy conditions have also put customers off visiting high streets.
Retail analyst Richard Hyman said this Christmas could be ‘the most discounted seen for generations’.
Two thirds of retailers are already running sales, including H&M, Gap and Jack Wills.
Accountancy firm Deloitte, which is analysing the market, said discounts are averaging 41.8 per cent and will rise to 45 per cent by the weekend. It said these are the biggest price cuts since at least 2008. House of Fraser and Debenhams are running events with savings of up to 50 per cent on gifts, winter coats and boots, while Marks & Spencer is offering 30 per cent off many items, including knitwear.
Clothing and footwear prices fell 0.1 per cent between October and November, the first such drop since records began in 1996, Office for National Statistics figures show. Its report highlighted a sharp fall in the price of women’s trousers in particular as retailers tried to clear stock after demand for warmer clothes slumped.
November was the warmest on record and December could follow suit. The Met Office said it will remain very mild this week, with temperatures predicted to reach 18C (64F) – around 10C above the average for the month and higher than the average usually seen in May.
The all-time December high of 18.3C (65F) was set on December 2 in 1948 in the Scottish Highlands.
Stores had tried to pre-empt the mild weather hitting their sales by putting their winterwear into shops later in the year. Many delayed deliveries to late October and even November rather than September as before, but the tactic has not worked, with women’s wear particularly taking a hit.
Yesterday over-50s womenswear retailer Bonmarche issued a profit warning following lacklustre sales, despite its decision to make its ranges ‘less heavily dependent’ on cold weather following last year’s mild autumn.
Earlier this week H&M said its sales in November had been damaged by ‘ unseasonably mild weather’ across Europe and North America.
Maureen Hinton, retail analyst at Conlumino, said: ‘It was mild last year but the milder weather has been extended this year. Retailers have tried to manage this but they have been caught out again.’
She said changing shopping habits could also be behind reduced sales of winterwear, explaining: ‘The population is growing older, and older people don’t need as many clothes, while the younger people are spending their money on technology.’ She added that we may be less likely to buy items such as gloves and scarves as Christmas presents as ‘ people have more options to spend their money on now’.
The mild weather – brought by a band of tropical air coming off the Atlantic from the south west – has also seen spring flowers blooming far earlier than usual. Daffodils were seen in Cornwall in late November, and are now growing as far north as Chester and Northern Ireland.
But the warmth is bad news for Christmas trees. Many of them will not last through the festive period because the unusual conditions are causing needles to drop early, experts warned.
Fir and spruce trees need cold weather to keep them fresh, so the mild temperatures mean many are already wilting. And heavy rain in October and November saturated their roots, weakening their pines before harvest.
Retailers usually expect between 1 and 2 per cent of the six million trees bought in the UK each year to need replacing because they have shed their needles. But that figure is expected to more than double to 5 per cent this year.
Families are being advised to keep trees away from radiators, sit them in water and cut half an inch off the end of the trunk, which opens the pores of the tree and helps it absorb more water.
The weather is also bad news for anyone dreaming of a white Christmas. Bookmakers yesterday cut the odds on this Christmas being the warmest on record from 5/1 to 2/1.