Number of shoppers falls again

Nov 19 2012

Economic uncertainty continues to take its toll on shoppers, with figures showing footfall fell again during the last quarter.

In the three months from August to October, the number of shoppers hitting high streets and retail centres fell by 3.9% compared with the same period the previous year.

Figures from the last quarter showed an improvement on the previous three months, when numbers fell by 8.2%.

The statistics were gathered for the British Retail Consortium/Springboard Retail Footfall Monitor, which tracks customer activity in towns and city centres, and in out-of-town shopping locations.

Overall footfall across the UK was down by 0.4% compared with the previous quarter, meaning Scotland was one of the worst-hit regions.

The monitor also revealed that vacancy rates for the number of empty shops in high streets and shopping centres fell to 9.9% in October from 10.5% in July.

Fiona Moriarty, director of the Scottish Retail Consortium, said: "It's encouraging to see that there are less empty shops in Scotland compared with the last quarter, and the vacancy rate is below the UK average of 12%.

"Unfortunately that doesn't mean people are doing more shopping. Footfall is down on a year ago for the 15th month in a row, confirming that continuing worries about jobs and the economy are really taking a toll on shopper numbers.

"And when viewed alongside October's Scottish Retail Sales Monitor, which showed the worst sales growth since January, it really hits home the scale of the challenges facing both customers and retailers.

"There's no quick fix solution, but there are issues that the Scottish Government can act on now to help ease the burden and enable the retail industry to play its full part in economic recovery. Freezing business rates in 2013 is a good place to start - allowing a steep rise for the third year running can only lead to more empty shops and hamper retailers' ability to create jobs."