High Street retailers looking for some hot stuff

RETAILERS on the UK High Street could be in for a £290m a week boost in sales if the 2016 weather improves before the end of the summer.

The Manchester-based Co-op Bank’s research says sales hot up when the weather temperature rises and a late summer heatwave could give the economy a major shot in the arm boost.

In-depth analysis reveals that the weather really does lead to high street sale peaks and troughs, and when the mercury rises – so do sales, while a dip in temperatures decreases sales where the variance can be up to 10%.

Last summer, Co-op saw sales rise by 10% when the average temperature rose above 21 degrees.

The trend was also evident the year before, when temperatures averaged 20 degrees, boosting sales by 10% again.  With an average weekly spend at UK food retailers of £2.9bn, this could increase sales by £290m per week.

In comparison, sales dipped during the summer’s coldest weeks.

Steve Murrells, chief executive of retail at Co-op, said: “During the hottest weeks we can expect to see like for like sales jump by up to 230% on lettuces, 375% on baby plum tomatoes and up to 150% on raspberries – great news for British farmers.
 
“It is a challenge for food retailers to ensure that we are ahead of the weather and have the right products in stock at the right time: shoppers quite rightly expect that their local convenience store will have the food they want: whatever the weather.”

A spokesperson from weather forecasters MetraWeather said: “The latest monthly forecast signals temperatures just below average overall during August, though the variations we’ve seen so far are likely to continue, with cooler spells interspersed by a few days of higher temperatures.”