Tell us the whole tale

Jan 3 2006 By Helen Logan Evening Gazette

The coming weeks will prove interesting when retailers begin to put out detailed statements as to how trading has stacked up in recent weeks.

Doom and gloom seems to have been the order of the day in the last few months on Britain's high streets and at its out-of-town shopping centres.

In fact, according to recent reports retailers have been caught in the worst conditions for 15 years.

If my experience has been anything to go by, a large chunk of the run-up to Christmas failed to attract the hoped-for hordes.

When I was out and about at both retail parks and in town centres in the weeks leading up to the festive break, they were far from busy.

But some shops appear to have bucked that trend.

This has included department store chain John Lewis saying it had experienced an 11.7pc sales improvement for the month up until Christmas Eve.

Hopes of a positive holiday trading period helped shares in Marks & Spencer trade above the £5 mark last week for the first time since 1998.

And since prices have been slashed in the sales, there have been reports of shoppers starting to flock in.

But many of the statistics have been too vague to gauge exactly how things have gone.

Shopping centres giving out figures in terms of footfall - the number of people going to the centre - can be misleading as people may not be buying but merely window shopping.

What we need to wait for is retailers releasing in-depth information when it will be seen how their all-important profit margins have fared.