nursery matters JOHN BARKER
Barking Mad This month Pramland’s John Barker is looking at the current social and economic conditions that are affecting many nursery retailers.
S
o the last month has been a little odd hasn’t it? We seemed to have overcome Covid regulations and business was looking like it would finally get the chance it needed to recover fully. . . . Then everything went a little pair shaped when Russia decided to invade Ukraine. This isn’t a soapbox for me to air my opinions on the war but it has affected us all and every high street around the world. February was, for us at least a very good month, we found footfall was increasing as people regained confidence about visiting shops. We also found that due to a number of pending price increases customers were trying to bag a pre-increase bargain. Finally, those parents to be that should have ordered their items in January returned to the store and parted with their hard earned cash. It all added up to positive start to 2022. As February gave way to March energy prices were all over the news, as a result your average household started to panic about the rises they could see in the not too distant future. As the war in Ukraine started and sanctions were placed against Russia 44
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more price increases started to appear, especially at the petrol pumps. The press started to report that petrol could hit £1.50 per litre, then two days later it could hit £1.60 per litre and so forth. All of this resulted in consumers going into a frenzy of cost saving exercises. Last week (w/c 7th March) saw us have the worst week we’ve had since before Covid! Footfall was lower and those that did venture into store were very and I mean very reluctant to part with their money. We still operate as appointment only on a weekend (it’s not a Covid thing anymore, we just prefer it and don’t intend to go back to no appointments) and the weekend was almost fully booked. As the week days had been so bad and given the full diary for the weekend I was confident that the week would be rescued by a fantastic Saturday and Sunday – boy was I wrong! Saturday wasn’t a terrible day and I was happy to see a significant improvement from the rest of the week. I would class it as a typical middle of the month Saturday, you know the ones where you are very busy but not everyone orders as it’s the middle of the month. If the customer had visited you after
john@pramland.co.uk Last week (w /c 7th M arc h) saw us have the wo rst week we’ ve had sinc e befo re Covid! Footfall was low er and tho se tha t did venture into store were very and I mean very reluctant to part wit h their mon ey.
The dreaded post Christmas credit card bill! Image source: pexels.com
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