US: Retail Shops Lose Out to Thriving Online Market

More and more Americans are opting to shop from the comfort of their own homes or offices. And while online retailers are thriving, many traditional shops are facing serious challenges. Al Jazeera’s Andy Gallacher reports from Miami.

Cold Australian Summer Sees Swimwear Profits Plummet
THE DAILY TELEGRAPH: Australia's coldest summer in decades has dampened the mood for Christmas shopping and led to plummeting profits for swimwear and clothing stores.

Several clothing and department store chains have cut prices or closed outlets and shares in surfwear company Billabong today fell to a record low. The company said its profit could fall by as much as 26 per cent.

The unseasonal damp cool conditions – including the coldest start in Sydney since 1960 – has been blamed for a slump in Christmas shopping and big falls in sales of clothing and shoes.

"Clothing retailers are still doing it fairly tough out there," said Russell Zimmerman, from The Australian Retailers Association. "The weather has been too cold for them – they need that really good run of hot weather and they haven't seen it."

The rain and cold, blamed on the La Nina [sic] [La Niña] weather cycle, has affected much of Australia's eastern seaboard. Two weeks ago, the city of Brisbane recorded its coldest December day for 123 years.

The poor weather has forced stores to heavily discount of swimwear and summer clothing, with the big department store chain David Jones dropping prices by 30 per cent. » | Jonathan Pearlman, Sydney | Monday, December 19, 2011

Retail Sales Figures Reveals [sic] Depth of Consumer Slump
THE GUARDIAN: The slump in retail sales in May does not bode well for GDP growth in the second quarter

Retail sales dived by twice the expected rate in May as consumers cut their spending on clothes and other non-food items to pay for higher petrol prices.

Retailers said the difficult economic outlook had depressed consumer confidence and encouraged shoppers to stay away from the high street.

Sales volumes dropped 1.4%, more than reversing the 1.1% increase in April that was mainly attributed to the royal wedding and unseasonally warm weather.

Vicky Redwood, senior UK economist at Capital Economics said the figures showed that April was a temporary blip to a long-term downward trend.

"The underlying trend in sales over the past several months still looks broadly flat at best. What's more, we expect this trend to worsen as households respond to the intensifying squeeze on their real pay. We continue to think that overall household spending will drop by about 1% this year," she said. » | Phillip Inman | Thursday, June 16, 2011

Tensions Rise in Greece as Austerity Measures Backfire
Photograph: Spiegel Online Internation
SPIEGEL ONLINE INTERNATIONAL: The austerity measures that were supposed to fix Greece's problems are dragging down the country's economy. Stores are closing, tax revenues are falling and unemployment has hit an unbelievable 70 percent in some places. Frustrated workers are threatening to strike back.

The feast of the Assumption of Mary on Aug. 15 is the high point of summer in the Greek Orthodox world. Here in one of the country's many churches, believers pray to the Virgin for mercy, with many of them falling to their knees.

The newspaper Ta Nea has recommended that the Greek government adopt the very same approach -- the country's leaders have to hope that Mary comes up with a miracle to save Greece from a serious crisis, the paper writes. Without divine intervention, the newspaper suggested, it will be a difficult autumn for the Mediterranean state.

This dire prognosis comes even despite Athens' massive efforts to sort out the country's finances. The government's draconian austerity measures have managed to reduce the country's budget deficit by an almost unbelievable 39.7 percent, after previous governments had squandered tax money and falsified statistics for years. The measures have reduced government spending by a total of 10 percent, 4.5 percent more than the EU and International Monetary Fund (IMF) had required.

The problem is that the austerity measures have in the meantime affected every aspect of the country's economy. Purchasing power is dropping, consumption is taking a nosedive and the number of bankruptcies and unemployed are on the rise. The country's gross domestic product shrank by 1.5 percent in the second quarter of this year. Tax revenue, desperately needed in order to consolidate the national finances, has dropped off. A mixture of fear, hopelessness and anger is brewing in Greek society. >>> Corinna Jessen in Athens | Wednesday, August 18, 2010

Shares Slump on Recession Fears
BBC: European and US shares have fallen sharply as poor US retail sales figures and Citigroup's first quarterly loss added to fears of a US recession.

In London the FTSE 100 index of leading shares slumped by more than 3% - its biggest one-day fall since the height of the credit crunch in August.

Meanwhile France's Cac 40 index lost 2.8% while Germany's Dax slid 2.1%.

Sales in US shops fell by 0.4% in December from a year earlier, as consumers tightened their belts.

And Citigroup, the giant US banking firm, reported a $9.83bn (£5bn) net loss for the last three months of 2007, taking its total writedowns as a result of exposure to sub-prime loans to $18bn.

"The losses at Citigroup - whilst fully expected - still seem to be unsettling traders across the Atlantic, whilst at the same time the lacklustre US retail sales figures are confirming that the economy is slowing," said CMC Markets trader Jimmy Yates. Shares slump on recession fears >>>

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