Weather Affects Buying Patterns
Salad, Sunglasses & Barbeques have been the choice of lunch & accesory this winter as Britain enjoys temperatures 2-3 degrees above average & weather considerably better than we have seen in recent years.‹¯¨
Shops around the country have seen typical summer items such as salads, shades & even barbeques outselling typical winter goods leaving items such as scarves, hats, gloves & wooly jumpers on the shelves.
Retail giant John Lewis said that sun glasses have been doing a roaring trade along with lightweight Barbour Jackets as opposed to quilted, thicker versions.
“The weather is definately having an impact on fashion sales” Lesley Ballantyne told the Telegraph “it is a couple of degrees warmer than average & people are not wearing winter coats & boots”
Whilst the last two years have seen horrendous artic type snow & gales thsi year has remained above double figures for much of the winter apart from a fortnight leading up to Christmas.
Simon Hill manager at British Thermals said he was hoping for the weather to worsen in a bid to sell stock of thermal underwear which by this time last year had completely sold out.
Sainsburys weather analyst David Bailey said “We know shoppers’ buying habits changing according to the weather; a chaneg in temperature of 3 degrees can see sales for certain products increase by 50 percent.” “We have been working hard to forecast weather conditions & ensure our shelves are fully stocked with everything that our customers need”
Gas companies will also be seeing profits suffer as a result of the warmer weather, even with the recent gale force winds lashing Scotland & England temperatures are likely to remain above 12 degrees meaning less people putting their heating on.
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