Marks and Spencer and Debenhams are among the retailers that have decided to hold pre-Christmas sales: M&S today only, and Debenhams for three days this week.

Although food sales are holding up – they increased by 1% in October, non-food sales fell by 1.1%. Clothing was the hardest-hit sector, with sales falling by 3.4%, suggesting that people are making do with what they have rather than treating themselves. That helps to explain why M&S is reducing clothing and homewares by 20% today, in its first single day sale for four years. Some stores will stay open until midnight.

M&S like-for-like sales declined by 6.1% in the 13 weeks to 27 September, while Philip Green’s Arcadia Group, the owner of Topshop, Dorothy Perkins and Burtons, has seen a 2.8% drop sop far this year.
 
"Retailers' actions in the past week indicate they are focusing all their efforts on the run up to Christmas, attempting to increase sales and footfall with wide scale pre-Christmas reductions. Battle lines have been drawn on the high street, and we can expect aggressive marketing on value across all segments to boost spending and to increase sales volume. The retail sector usually faces a testing and nervous time trying to gauge the temperature of consumer demand in the run-up to Christmas. But it faces exceptional uncertainty this year,” said Jeremy Rance, National Director, Retail and Wholesale Sectors, Barclays Commercial Bank.

"The interest rate cut earlier this month, and speculation of further cuts following the impending pre-budget report, may entice the now frugal shopping public to take advantage of the widespread discounting taking place. This can only be assisted by the lower cost of fuel, which should encourage people to drive to the larger retail centres to stock up on Christmas gifts and bargains."

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