Must Uk's Love Affair with High Street End in Divorce?; While Retailers Brace Themselves for a Scrooge-Like Christmas There May yet Be Merrier Times Ahead After the Festive Season

Summary

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THE nine men and women who now determine UK interest rates call it "a key uncertainty". Indeed, the monetary policy committee's latest minutes openly admit members may have "underestimated" the impact of a rapidly cooling housing market on household spending.

So is Britain's recent love affair with the high street and the shopping mall really on the wane? Is the consumer spending spree that kept our economy alive in the early years of this century finally running out of steam? Away from the well-publicised management troubles of groups such as Marks & Spencer and Sainsbury, there's certainly plenty of anecdotal evidence to support that view.

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Extract

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Must Uk's Love Affair with High Street End in Divorce?; While Retailers Brace Themselves for a Scrooge-Like Christmas There May yet Be Merrier Times Ahead After the Festive Season

One seasoned Scottish fashion retailer was complaining "how tough things are out there", within my hearing the other day. And the rash of seasonal sales and special offers seems to have arrived even earlier this year.

Corporate warning signals are evide...

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