After the recession ends, high street trading will never look the same

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After the recession ends, high street trading will never look the same

It might have happened in any case, however when the dark clouds of recession eventually dissipate over high street Britain what will remain in place there seems very hard to imagine. In the falsely inflated boom time, especially over the last five years or so, to be a major retailer with a top location was the nearest thing to having the proverbial "licence to print money".

While internet shopping was making some major inroads, the UK public still demanded their constitutional rights to touch, feel and ponder before making a decision to purchase. However as the credit crunch began to bite, and the bite deeper, the public began to stay away and sales began to plummet. Some famous names began to disappear from the scene, either closing down voluntarily or being forced into liquidation. Probably the best know of them of all was the Woolworths chain, although there were many that said that their time had come and their form of retailing was outmoded.

However for those who want to maintain their role as major UK retailers times are tough and look like getting tougher. Figures announced at the beginning of this week show that retail sales in February fell by almost 2% percent from the previous month, almost five times more than was predicted arriving at a level as low as late 1995. According to Mervyn King, Governor of the Bank of the U.K. economy has contracted to a level unseen since the late seventies from the beginning of 2009.

The main reason for the decrease in sales was in the non-food sector which fell by 3.2 percent from the previous month, meaning that the public are just not spending money on what are now regarded as luxury items.

What may bring high street retailers further cause for concern is that sales on the internet, whilst there are no official figures available, seems to be much less effected by the downturn. It may be possible that the UK public have realised the significant cost savings available online, especially in major items such as electrical goods and furniture, and have foregone the pleasure of touching and testing and being sold to, in order to save some of their hard earned cash.