Even our diets are beginning to have a distinct wartime feel. Spam is back. At Waitrose, sales of beef shin increased by 23pc. Ox cheeks, lamb necks and fish heads are up 34% as consumers embrace the types of cuts that were once commonplace on British dinner plates. Apparently this is called “eating ancestors”.
With household incomes under relentless pressure, demand for goods and services is likely to take a dramatic hit, pushing the economy into recession. Manufacturing fell 0.3% in August and is expected to be negative for the third quarter.
Dame Sharon White, boss of the John Lewis Partnership, which also owns Waitrose, compared the current situation to the 1970s and predicted the cost of living crisis would hit the venerable retailer harder than the coronavirus.
The pain is widely felt. There was a profit warning at Primark and Asos launched a rescue plan, while Dunelm warned of a “challenging winter”.
Marks & Spencer is closing dozens of clothing stores, removing another reason to visit struggling city centres. Although, as we report today, heavily indebted Matalan is likely to be bailed out by its creditors, most will be left to fend for themselves.
During downturns, free marketers like to talk about “creative destruction.” Entrepreneurship abounds in Britain, but who would be brave enough to set up a new business today?
The odd pound shop or takeaway kebab joint will inevitably pop up here and there, but otherwise parades of clapboarded buildings and empty high streets will become the norm – a high-definition British ghost town.
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