Why retail is in a rut

With the housing market beginning to turn down and unemployment on the up, consumers are feeling gloomy, and extended sales aren't tempting them back to the shops - all bad news for British retailers.

With the housing market beginning to turn down and unemployment on the up, consumers are feeling gloomy, and extended sales aren't tempting them back to the shops - which is bad news for British retailers.

While retail tycoons Philip Green and Stuart Rose were "fighting for control in the Oxford Street sea-lanes", it seems "the water itself was draining away", says Andrew Gilligan in the Evening Standard. As the duo fought for control of Marks & Spencer, with its flagship store on London's flagship high street, "customers were deserting the West End". So, in an attempt to woo customers back to the capital's main shopping street, Green and Rose have buried the hatchet to announce the first Oxford Street Festival. "It's important to get people back into town," says Green. He's right, of course. We just wonder if a few lines of bunting is going to be enough. Because it isn't just Oxford Street that is suffering. From Matalan to Marks & Spencer, Morrison's to MFI, bad news and profit warnings have become the norm across the retailers. There have been over a dozen profit warnings in the last three months, and it is estimated that the sector has already cut 8,000 jobs this year.

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Annunziata Rees-Mogg

Annunziata was a deputy editor at MoneyWeek, covering financial markets, politics, economics and comment pieces. She then went on to the Daily Telegraph as a lead writer where she wrote a column on young women’s financial issues. She was briefly a member of the European Parliament for the East Midlands region in the UK as part of the Conservative Party.  Annunziata continues to write  as a freelance journalist.