Scottish retail sales fall in February

High-street stores have suffered ‘another disappointing

month’, with sales down again in February in Scotland. Figures released by the Scottish Retail Consortium showed that retailers saw a drop of 0.6 per cent in total sales on February last year.

Even though the fall wasn’t as much as in previous months, Scottish retailers had the biggest fall in total sales in January, when there was a slump of 1.5 per cent, the SRC added that it was the worst February year-on-year performance since its survey began in 1999.

In addition, like-for-like sales, which strip out factors such as new store openings, were 1.7 per cent lower last month than a year ago, when they had fallen 1.3 per cent.

The figures suggest that Scottish consumers are sticking to the basics as total food sales were up last month, 3.4 per cent higher than February last year and like-for-like sales 1.6 per cent higher. However, total non-food sales were 4.4 per cent lower in February when compared to 12 months ago, while like-for-like sales were down by 4.8 per cent.
On all measures retail sales in Scotland were weaker than in the UK as a whole.

Ian Shearer, Scottish Retail Consortium director, said: "Food did better than January as people restocked but most non-food goods struggled seriously. Especially for big-ticket items, it's taking margin-sapping discounts to generate the sales that are happening because many customers are still afraid to spend where they don't have to."

David McCorquodale, head of retail in Scotland for KPMG, added: "Until an upturn is truly felt through jobs, wages or net income, it seems that no level of promotion or discounting from the retailer can really lift the gloom.

"Many retailers feel they are fighting hard just to stand still at best and don't see any light at the end of the tunnel."