Clinton Cards and John Lewis

Posted by Flying Scotsman on Thu, 05/01/2012 - 10:26 in Blogs 647 2 comments | report

Instead of the good old days when it was ICI and M&S as the barometers of UK plc it is now Clinton Cards and John Lewis or any other high street name that is the headline grabber. That’s my point – are they merely headlines or do they actually tell us something about the state of the economy? I have been predicting economic fortunes accurately for 17 years – why is that ? Is it because I am NOT an # economist ? That was a joke by the way ! Seriously , the reason is because I work at the sharp end – the SME sector and I have my ear to the ground especially with my charity work on money management . So in summary here is the bad news . Recession 2.0 has arrived . Happy 2012

Comments

I suspect you are going to be right

dbowleracca | Sat, 07/01/2012 - 13:27 | Permalink

Whilst official figures won't show if we are in recession for a while, I strongly agree that we will have one and that 2012 will be tough for many business owners particularly retainers, trades people and anyone who derives their income from supporting these sectors.

On a plus side, there are lots of businesses doing really well - and some of these are in the sectors I mention above. That's because, in my opinion, there are a lot of poorly run businesses out there that have only ever managed to survive because of the economic boom and they now don't know what to do to turn things around. But some businesses are very good (John Lewis for example) and would weather any storm because they differentiate themselves and meet the needs of people who still have money to spend.

Whilst a recession isn't good news for all the people who lose their jobs and businesses, it does help get rid of some of the dead wood, a bit like a spring clean of the economy, and we should emerge from this with a better mix of businesses providing the types of products and services that meet the needs of today's business and consumer Market

Recession

Flying Scotsman | Tue, 17/01/2012 - 13:46 | Permalink

Yesterday was the announcements of Peacocks and Past Times going bump. Peacocks should have been well placed for the frugal shopper in these times , but Past Times was the sort of shop that was aimed at people feeling good with money spare ,so I suppose it was a waiting game. I don't know of their detailed finances but susupect high street rent and rates played their parts.

I have always been a supporter of recessions being a way to bring out the best entrepreneurial spirit and shake firms out of theor laissex faire attitude. There is an interesting piece in last week's Economist about this theme.

I have personally had to reshape my businesses due to the downturn and long term it will hopefully bring benefits. The secret is in predicitng the timing of the downturns , their depth and when they will end. In this one we're in for a long haul until the debt flushes out.

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