Including amount spent at value retailers hitting almost £5 billion per year.
The Source rounds up some of the key retail stories of the week.
New data from Nielsen has shown that the amount spent at value retailers – including Poundland, B&M and Home Bargains – has hit a new high of over £4.9 billion per year, up 17% on the previous year. Around 78% of British households have now shopped in value stores, with 52% saying that have shopped in Poundland. The most popular products at value retailers are household, packaged grocery, confectionery and healthy and beauty, accounting for 63% of sales.
Despite the closure of its Oxford Street outlet after less than a year of trading, The Toy Store is said to be moving on with plans to open up to six UK stores. Chief financial officer Mark Handley told Retail Week that the retailer was looking at “key larger shopping mall destinations across the UK”.
Staying with toy retailers, and the opening of The Entertainer’s first store in Northern Ireland proved to be a success. The Belfast outlet officially opened its doors on August 13.
Amazon has set its sights on opening three more physical book stores in the US – in Chicago, San Diego and Portland. The first Amazon Books opened in Seattle last year.
John Lewis is to recruit over 3,500 temporary staff across a number of departments to help it cope with the demand over Christmas.
Meanwhile, the department store chain saw its total sales increase 1.3% for the week to August 20, up to £72.9 million. Audio and connected home products remained popular (up 15.7% year on year), while beauty also had a strong week (+5.1%). Fashion sales grew 1.2%, with home sales edging up 0.7%.
The remaining 22 BHS stores will close this weekend, meaning that the retailer will officially disappear from the high street. The flagship Oxford Street outlet has already closed.
Debenhams’ Irish business is out of examinership after the High Court approved a restructuring plan for the retailer. The move will save 1,330 jobs.
Tesco has launched a same-day click and collect service at almost 300 of its stores. Shoppers will be able to collect any orders placed before 1pm from their local store at 4pm. They will be charged £2 for a two-hour collection slot from Monday to Thursday, and £3 for slots on Friday and Saturday. However, the service will not be available on Sundays.
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