The trouble with weather forecasting is that it’s right too often for us to ignore it and wrong too often for us to rely on it.
We are not sure if we can attribute anyone to this but it’s a good start to today’s retail sermon. We are nearly past the summer and the silly season is upon us when stores mark down summer wear and move in new lines for AW10. Christmas planning is well underway whilst back to school is in the warehouse ready to go to stores. We started with the quote as its clear the summer winners and losers were again a mixed bunch and as always we have been amused by the lame excuses the losers churn out to explain away poor responsiveness. The best excuse of SS10 goes to Blacks Leisure who blamed the weather was too hot which would be alright if they were selling polar bear suits but for an outdoor retailer is akin to getting the mother in law’s name wrong in a best man’s speech. The supermarkets and fast fashion appear to have done ok out of summer. The supermarkets struck a good balance in getting sufficient BBQ merchandise out in the hot spell and taking a share of the world cup trade out of the specialists like JJB and Sports direct.One of the most interesting moves of the summer was the Asda purchase of Netto for £778m. This will give them more traction to keep a robust defence of their market share as rivals have made 2009-10 a relatively tough year. We believe it’s a smart move and not simply defensive and sadly now see a polarised economy where significant numbers of middle class trade down to own brand or discounters and a relative few continue to alight Burberry and Mulberry with a care to the AW10 chill.On another note we are pleased to see merchandise selling well at the internet retailer close to our own name ‘notonthehighstreet.com. Whilst we’d rather put our reputation on the line and assist retailers shift their own merchandise perhaps in these austere times we can launch a limited fashion range to suit the mood. Like this then contact us for specialist retail consulting from enhanced control systems to shifting excess merchandise at the end of the season. Contact us on enquiries.hs@highstreeters.com. Try us out now and we are confident that you will be a repeat purchaser.
