Black Friday and early Christmas promos see improvement on previous month but figures still down year on year
AFTER a tough year in the food retailing business the early Christmas trading period provided a little respite for stores in Scotland, according to the latest report from Scottish Retail Consortium KPMG Retail Sales Monitor.
Total food sales were 2.2% down on November 2014. Like-for-like sales, which strip out the effect of sales in stores that began or ceased trading during the year in question, were 2.3% lower than the same month in the previous year.
However, while the amount spent on food did decline year on year the severity of the decline was less than in October when like-for-like sales had been 3.1% lower than in 2014.
November’s figures meant the month returned the best performance for food in Scotland since June. It also meant that November had been ahead of the three-month average decline which was 3% and the 12-month average decline of 2.5%.
Total Scottish retail sales (a figure that includes food and non-food) in November 2015 were also down 2.3% but like-for-like sales were down 2.7%.
Year-on-year sales value will have been influenced by general price deflation and when adjusted for the effects of deflation as measured by the BRC-Nielsen Shop Price Index, total Scottish sales decreased by 0.1% in real terms.
Black Friday offers, at the end of November, were said to have had a positive effect on non-food sales but the monitor also found that food’s improved performance was driven by Black Friday offers on festive fare in the final week of November.
