Trouble down the high street

The high street remained depressed throughout May with London and the south east badly hit, says a consumer counting agency that works for the profession.
Latest figures for retail footfall assessed by Solution Products Systems Limited (SPSL) reveal that, despite two bank holiday weekends last month, in general retailers found trading tough.
SPSL's Retail Traffic Index, which tots up retail activity in store, calculated shoppers were just 0.3 per cent more active than in April - but this was still 0.5 per cent down on 2004's figures. May proved to be the worst month this century for retail traffic numbers in London and the south east, and was down 5.2 per cent year on year.
Dr Tim Denison, director of knowledge of management at SPSL, said: 'The real news comes when this trend is compared with breaking data from the banking sector. Together they indicate that consumers, for the first time in recent years, are electing to pay back some of their outstanding credit card debt rather than go out shopping and add to it.
'This change in discretionary spend is strong evidence that the UK consumer is finally feeling the strain of over a trillion pounds of debt and is taking action to get to grips with it.'
He said that the latest figures were also evidence that what was arguably a short-term 'blip' in consumer behaviour may be developing into an ongoing trend. The apparent step change in the public's general thinking and behaviour offers little optimism for retailers as the summer doldrums approach.
'If reducing outstanding debt on credit and store cards is now uppermost in many people's minds, it will make it even harder to seduce them into spending on extravagances,' said Dr Denison. 'Retailers would be well advised over the coming months to stick to their core product strengths.'
SPSL's Retail Traffic Index is a barometer of shopper activity and a reflection of over 365 million shopper visits per year in retail outlets across the UK.