Bargain hunters bring welcome cheer to shops

THE dash by bargain hunters for money-saving deals is delivering some post-Christmas cheer to the struggling retail sector.

So far stores nationwide have reported strong sales with many hoping to make up for the lost turnover caused by the bad weather before the festive season.

Given the bleak economic environment, however, Retail Ireland says the sector remains cautious about the outlook for revenue in the New Year.

Director of Retail Ireland, Torlach Denihan, said the pattern of strong sales in the past three days were has delivered much needed good news to the under pressure retail end of the economy.

Mr Denihan points out that in the week before Christmas, retail sales were struggling and were 10% down on the same period of 2009.

Overall he noted that since the recession began, retailing in Ireland has witnessed a large fall in the amount of money customers were prepared to spend due to lack of confidence in the economy and fears for what the future holds for jobs and incomes ito the future.

Against that, Mr Denihan said that rental costs, hourly wages, recycling fees and local authority charges had not fallen, leaving many retailers struggling to stay afloat in prevailing tough trading environment.

He called on the Government to tackle each of these areas to give protection to the jobs in the retail sector might be secured.

With over 40,000 jobs lost so far in this, the worst recession in living memory, Mr Denihan called on the Government to defer the increase in wages being sought by the Retail Joint Labour Committee from the first of January.

Retail Ireland represents the retail sector here and is affiliated to IBEC.

Members own 3,000 shops, that include department stores, DIY, electrical retailers, fashion and footwear retailers, supermarket groups as well as specialist retailers.