Why Marks & Spencer’s results matter

By the end of last year it was already clear that retail sector wasn't going to be much of a place for your cash this year, says Merryn Somerset Webb.

By the end of last year it was already clear that the retail sector wasn't going to be much of a place for your cash this year. But just how bad things were going to get was brought home to me only when I ventured out to the shops just after Christmas.

Given the normal state of Oxford Street in sale season, I thought I wouldn't go on the 26th, 27th or 28th of December. Instead, I went with some trepidation, given that only a few days earlier someone had been stabbed in the melee at the handbag counter in Selfridges on the 29th.

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