Bad weather hits sales

Poor weather conditions have had a dampening effect on retail sales this summer with practices in worst hit areas of flooding suffering the most. Figures from the British Retail Consortium revealed that like-for-like sales on the retail market as a whole rose just 1.2 per cent in July compared with 4.6 per cent in June. This represented the weakest monthly performance in the retail sector since last November.

In a news poll of practices, Optician found that most practice sales have been hit to some extent, although special offers on sunglasses and frames have helped some to maintain sales levels.