Three questions to ask before you buy shares in any UK high street retailer

Times are hard for UK retailers. But that doesn't mean the sector's not worth investing in, says John Stepek. Just make sure you know what you're buying.

190110-retailers

Times are tough for retailers. But times are always tough for retailers
(Image credit: Vickie Flores)

Ah, early January. The time of year when we hear all about how awful Christmas was for the high street.

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John Stepek

John Stepek is a senior reporter at Bloomberg News and a former editor of MoneyWeek magazine. He graduated from Strathclyde University with a degree in psychology in 1996 and has always been fascinated by the gap between the way the market works in theory and the way it works in practice, and by how our deep-rooted instincts work against our best interests as investors.

He started out in journalism by writing articles about the specific business challenges facing family firms. In 2003, he took a job on the finance desk of Teletext, where he spent two years covering the markets and breaking financial news.

His work has been published in Families in Business, Shares magazine, Spear's Magazine, The Sunday Times, and The Spectator among others. He has also appeared as an expert commentator on BBC Radio 4's Today programme, BBC Radio Scotland, Newsnight, Daily Politics and Bloomberg. His first book, on contrarian investing, The Sceptical Investor, was released in March 2019. You can follow John on Twitter at @john_stepek.