Shops empty - or is it just me

[Tony]

I have been to both Ikea Warrington and Ikea Bolton in the last few weeks and both seemed to be incredibly empty. It will be interesting to see the retail figures for this month - I think they will be well down.

Tony

[Nicola]

Sainsbury's shelves always seems to be empty too! Maybe the mad price of fuel in the UK is keeping the delivery trucks and customers off the road!

In general, I think we're all becoming a little more careful about the mount of money we spend and are giving away less on frivolous stuff. I've certainly noticed a much bigger set of bills at the supermarket over the last year or so...and it's not due to a bigger shopping basket!

[Tony]

I think it is a symptom of just in time stocking i.e. they have very little storage at the shops to maximise retail space. Orders are automatically created based on sales at the till and means they cannot keep up with demand. Try getting a burger on a sunny weekend afternoon...