The recently completed 2012 Olympic Games held in London, England did not help increase retail sales for retailers in Great Britain, as many had expected and hoped. The country’s retailers suffered in August, as people stayed at home watching the Games, said a survey by the industry that was released Tuesday morning.
If the impact of new retail square footage is removed, sales in retail stores in August dropped by 0.4% from the same month in 2011, according to the British Retail Consortium. The weakest sector was non-food items.
The sales level for the month of August was the lowest since late in 2011, when eliminating April, which due to the day Easter fell on, was highly distorted. Regional retailers said the fell good factor of the Olympic Games did not succeed in inspiring shoppers throughout the region to spend more money. The BRC represents more than 60% of all of Britain’s retailers.
The BRC also indicated that online sales for members had jumped by 4.8% in August, but that particular rate of growth was the lowest since the BRC started collecting data for online sales sometime in 2008.
A number of retailers who were polled said online sales had slowed during the evenings while the Olympic Games were being held. The members said people were at home busy watching the sporting event at night and did not make online purchases.
Analyst and economists believe sales for some retailers were hampered because shoppers did not want to fight traffic congestion and the overworked public transportation system during the Olympics and therefore stayed away from stores.
