Sales Values Fall

Retail sales values fell by 0.8% in the year to May on a like-for-like basis but the total showed only a 0.8% increase in total. These BRC statistics are actual values that include VAT and are taken from a sample of retailers. It is a measure of the volume of spending. It does not reflect price changes so if prices rise the volume increases by less than sales values. The values for non-food non-store sales, which includes Internet sales, reported a 7.6% change on last year. It continues to out-perform store sales but it is the weakest figure reported since the measure began. The quarterly figures show increases of 5.4% like-for-like and 6.8% in total for food sales and a 2.4% increase in total over all categories.