Cold Weather Affected Sales In February

The value of retail sales in the UK on a like-for-like basis across all categories rose 2.2% in February compared with February 2009 when the sales were hit by the snow and cautious consumers. The total base for retail sales rose 4.5% compared with 0.1% last year.

Shoppers seemed to have stocked up with food becuase of the January snowy weather and the food index showed only a 2.4% change and non-food changed by 1.9% like-for-like in February. The overall like-for-like index was a 2.1% change. The total basis showed a 4.1% change in food sales, 4% in non-food and 4.1% over all categories.

The internet, mail order and phone sales index in February was 15.5% up on last year compared with 14.6% in January. The weather was cold and wet and that helped to increase non-food non-store sales.