Retail sales extend recovery in August; food sales in large stores fall

Retail sales recovered further in August following a virus-fuelled slump, aided by strong demand for household goods, official data showed on Friday.

Sales by volume climbed for a fourth month running, by 0.8 percent from July, the Office for National Statistics said in a statement.

Retail sales were up four percent since February, one month before Britain went into lockdown, the ONS added, as well as from August last year.

“Retail sales continued to grow, surpassing their pre-pandemic level,” ONS statistician Jonathan Athow said of August’s data.

“Sales of household goods thrived as the demand for home improvement continued and, despite a dip this month, online sales remained high.

“However, clothing stores continued to struggle with sales still well below their February level,” he added.

Apart from non-store retailing, food retail is the only sector that experienced growth in year to date (January to August) sales volumes, with 4.4 per cent increase year on year. Non-store retailing saw a jump of 28.6 per cent, fuelled by the pandemic demand.

Total retail sales volumes decreased by 4.8 per cent up to August, showing the impact of the COVID-19 restrictions. Total non-food stores fell by 18.2 per cent, with a strong decline of 30.1 per cent for clothing stores.

The ONS figures also showed that food and drink sales at large retailers, including supermarkets, fell in July and August.

“There was a spike in spending for food and drink items in March as sales were 12.1 per cent higher than February; this is likely because of panic buying at the start of lockdown. After some contraction in April, May and June remained at high levels and sales in July and August began to fall,” the agency said.

(With Agencies)