Stores slash prices to get us spending

Catriona

What Consumer Founder
Jun 23, 2008
896
6
0
Desperate to get families to open their wallets, supermarkets and retailers are falling over each other to offer Christmas discountsimg class="left" src="http://img.thisismoney.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/sales_203x150.jpg" width="203" height="150" alt="High street sales" /

More...Stores slash prices to get us spending (External link to This is Money)
 

Jorumian

Facilitator
Sep 1, 2008
347
3
0
Birkenhead
I'm afraid to me, this is only half of the equation to solve the problem.

If companies want us to spend more money, then we have to have more money to spend. A reduction in VAT is simply meaning we spend less... It does not mean we have that money to spend in the first place!

If the government wants to take action to make us spend again then it needs to ensure all banks pass on the full 2.5% rate cut, they need to drastically reduce council tax across the board, they need to reduce the rate of income tax immediately. In particular they need to reduce the ridiculous prices of fuel, gas, electricity and water for starters. Oh and do something to reduce the ridiculous amounts people pay for credit.

THAT will give us the money to spend in the shops. The 2.5% reduction in VAT is all very nice, but to benefit from that you have to spend money. And that is the problem because people do not have the money to spend!