Scotland’s shoppers ‘going out more but spending less’

AS MANY as one in nine shops in Scotland is vacant, although the number of shoppers visiting them was up slightly on last year, new figures show.

The British Retail Consortium (BRC) found that the level of “footfall” in Scotland rose 0.2 per cent May to July, one of the few parts of the UK to see an increase in the number of shoppers on the same period last year. But the BRC warned that shoppers were tending to go out more but still were spending less overall as worries about being short of cash meant they broke big weekly shops into smaller more frequent ones.

Richard Dodd, head of media for the BRC, said: “It is surprising in a way because what ultimately matters to retailers, and what really indicates how customers are feeling, is how much they are spending rather than how many trips to the shops they make.

“According to our spending figures, actually the performance in Scotland is a bit worse than for the UK whole and consumer confidence is lower in Scotland.

“All we can conclude is people are going out to the shops as part of their weekly ritual although they are spending a lot less while they are there.

“Rather than making one major shop every week or fortnight, because people feel short of money and are worried about their own personal cash flow, they are breaking it down into more but smaller visits to shops.”

Nevertheless, Scotland’s retail activity was proving more resilient than other areas, notably Northern Ireland and Wales. All three nations, where the public sector is a bigger proportion of the economy, are the ones where customer spending is most likely to be hit by worries about job cuts, the BRC said.

Dodd added that, compared to Northern Ireland, which has the highest number of empty shops at 17.1 per cent, and Wales, which saw the biggest slump in footfall, Scotland could find “some comfort”.

“Of the three nations that are not England, Scotland is actually doing the best,” he said.

On average footfall across the UK fell 1 per cent, while vacancy rates were on average 11.2 per cent – with Scotland just edging below the average, with vacancies at 11.1 per cent, the BRC said.

Stephen Robertson, the BRC’s director general, said the reduced footfalls were measured before the impact of the riots in England. He said: “Fewer people are shopping because households are facing high inflation, low wage growth and uncertainty about future job prospects.”

Across the UK, trips to out-of-town shopping centres fell 1.9 per cent, while footfall on the high street fell 2.6 per cent. Trips to shopping malls rose slightly to 0.6 per cent, which the BRC attributed to summer sales.

Diane Wehrle, director at research firm Springboard, said: “There has also been a shift in activity between different types of shopping areas. Traditionally retail parks and malls outperformed the high street due to ease of access and free parking. However, these areas are now experiencing similar challenges to town centres.

“The modest 0.6 per cent growth in footfall in shopping centres could, in part, be attributed to the early start of summer sales by the multiples which dominate those spaces. ”

Dodd called on policy-makers in Scotland to resist the temptation to add to the sector’s woes.

He said: “It all confirms the huge pressure that customers and therefore retailers are under and the importance of politicians recognising that and supporting households and retailers by not putting on extra cost burdens. For retailers that is particularly about business rates and other regulatory costs.”