{"id":221348,"date":"2022-12-05T10:28:09","date_gmt":"2022-12-05T10:28:09","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/?p=221348"},"modified":"2022-12-05T10:28:22","modified_gmt":"2022-12-05T10:28:22","slug":"in-my-view-by-eric-musgrave-dark-days-are-ahead","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.theindustry.fashion\/in-my-view-by-eric-musgrave-dark-days-are-ahead\/","title":{"rendered":"In My View by Eric Musgrave: Dark days are ahead"},"content":{"rendered":"

How many more fashion shops will we lose during the next 12 months?\u00a0I always try and stay positive but all the indications are that 2023 is going to be a very tough year for many fashion retailers and their suppliers.<\/strong><\/p>\n

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Nothing could be worse than the COVID-19 lockdown, we thought, but the economic gloom that has settled over the country since the summer has proved us wrong. Jeremy Hunt\u2019s Autumn Statement on 17 November presented a bleak prospect for the next few years in the UK.<\/p>\n

The Tories have been in power for 12 years yet they like to pretend today\u2019s problems are nothing to do with their policies. Labour, meanwhile, still looks like someone who has woken from a long sleep and does not know where they are.<\/p>\n

Sadly for anyone trying to run a retail (or manufacturing) business, both major parties (in England at least) have now started planning for the next election, even though it may be two years away, so we are unlikely to see any drastic (or helpful) action for the retail sector any time soon.<\/p>\n

An interesting consideration is how many people are being really affected by the cost-of-living crisis. For months the media has been banging on about inflation, rising energy prices, rising costs and wage stagnation. It\u2019s been a depressing read, watch and listen. My contacts in the independent sector tell me it has had a depressing effect on their takings.<\/p>\n

Since the Queen died in early September footfall and spending has dropped off, often very markedly, and retailers I speak to are disheartened and concerned in equal measure.<\/p>\n

A strongly-held view \u2013 and one I agree with \u2013 is that many consumers are over-reacting to the economic pressures. Despite the social inequalities in the UK (or maybe that should read because<\/em> of the social inequalities in the UK) lots of people are pretty comfortably off and will remain so even with higher energy bills and a bigger bill for the weekly shop.<\/p>\n

Not spending, however, has become fashionable and it will be down to retailers (and retailers) and their suppliers to ride out what could be a long storm.<\/p>\n

Who is confident enough to bet spending will be anything like normal this Christmas? As always, the weather will play a crucial and inescapable role on fashion sales but this time round a bad winter will probably not help sales of coats, boots and knitwear \u2013 it will prompt people to keep hold of their cash for their utility bills.<\/p>\n

I have been wondering what some high streets will look like by Easter 2023, which in England at least is two rent quarter days away. On my sporadic trips around the country, especially in north-east England and southern and central Scotland, I have been struck at the grim state of many of our local retail districts.<\/p>\n

Traditional local high streets have been denuded of big names and even where independents survive in decent numbers the gaps among the properties around\u00a0 them project a depressing atmosphere.<\/p>\n\n\t\t