Rarely can a Budget have disintegrated so quickly. Dixons have just announced sales falling by 11% over the last 11 weeks, and are now cutting capital expenditure by 25%. Oddbins goes bankrupt. The former Asda boss has predicted a “long-term trend of trading down”. HMV has just issued its thrid profits warning in 3 months: annual profits are now expected to be less than half of what the City was expecting only 6 months ago. M&S have announced its clothing and homeware sales have declined 6% in the fist 3 months of this year. Thomas Cook, H Samuel, Ernest Jones, Argos, Comet, Mothercare all report sales and profits tumbling. This collapse of consumer confidence is everywhere, as all the economic reports are echoing. Continue reading →