Retail sales fall in May

Jun 27, 2022

Retail sales fell in May by 0.5%, following a rise of 0.4% in April, with consumer confidence falling and food purchases declining.

The Office for National Statistics' figures showed a 1.6% reduction in food spend in shops, linked to the rising cost in food prices and the cost of living.

Supermarkets reported a drop of 1.5% in sales volume over May, with a further 2.2% drop in specialist shops such as butchers and bakers.

Petrol and diesel sales rose by 1.1% in May, linked to people working back in offices as well as the increase in filling up a car.

One area not as badly hit, however, was clothing, with stores reporting a monthly increase in sales of 2.2%. Feedback to ONS suggested the increase was due to people buying new clothes for summer holidays.

Helen Dickinson, chief executive of the British Retail Consortium, said:

"Many customers are buying down, particularly with food, choosing value-range items where they might previously have bought premium goods."

Prices continue to rise overall, at their fastest rate for 40 years. UK inflation is currently at 9.1% - the highest level since 1982.

Ask us about your business.

 

Hopefully we’ve piqued your interest?

We’re a really friendly bunch and would love to hear from you.

We won’t bog you down with technical jargon. We like to keep things simple and to the point.

Get in touch to arrange a no obligation meeting and we can have a chat about your future needs.

Quickbooks logo
Sage
Xero
Freeagent logo