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Buyers stayed away from the main streets after Boris Johnson announced “Plan B” restrictions to deal with the omicron, which has hit retail and hospitality businesses in their busiest time of the year.
According to Springboard, store visits across the UK have declined as the public has been warned that the new version of Covid is highly contagious and urged to work from home.
Meanwhile, Dyson became the last company to tell some employees to keep coming to the office because of the growing response from companies to the new restrictions.
The number of shoppers fell 1.1 percent in the week to Dec. 11 from the previous seven days, according to Springboard, due to a 2.7 percent drop in shopping visits on major streets.
Rates were particularly subdued on Saturday – usually at the peak of pre-Christmas trading – with a 1.2% drop in numbers.
Diane Wehrle of Springboard said: “The expected pre-Christmas rise in trade has not materialized … The number of people in retail parks and shopping malls has increased, but only by a small amount, which was not enough for a general rise.”
Rates fell 18 percent last week from 2019, but were 18 percent higher than last year, when Covid’s cases also rose.
The biggest drop of 5.7 percent was in coastal cities, partly due to cold weather, followed by shops in central and outer London, by 5.3 percent and 5.2 percent, respectively.
Businesses are likely to fear a further decline in the short term. The data cover the period after the publication of the rules of Plan B, but before the new advice on working from home came into force on Monday, where possible.
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