Scotland’s high streets saw a “depressing” slowdown in sales last month as shoppers kept their purses shut.
The latest Scottish Retail Consortium – KPMG monthly sales monitor recorded an overall 1.6% fall in sales of both food and non-food items during May.
The scale of the drop-off was even greater on a like-for-like basis, which strips out the effect of new store openings and closures, with sales 2.7% below the level seen a year earlier.
“May’s retail figures in Scotland are disappointingly weak due to three factors a competitive grocery market, mixed weather and localised caution when spending on bigger ticket items,” KPMG’s head of retail David McCorquodale said.
“Consequently, the last quarter’s total sales have declined despite the last year showing an increase.
“Discounts offered by grocers are being snapped up by cost-conscious consumers but, from the retailer viewpoint, these are depressing sales, and consequently margins, and the situation is likely to persist in the short term.
“Fashion and footwear fared best in the non-food category which, adjusting for the inclusion of on-line sales, would have shown growth, albeit muted by mixed weather.
“However, with the gap widening between Scotland’s non-food growth in the last quarter and that of the rest of the UK, it appears that the recovery in the south east has yet to gain strength north of the border in terms of meaningful spend in household goods.”
The survey found that over the last three months, total food sales declined by 1.6%, in contrast with 12-month average growth of 1.3%.
Non-food sales were up 1.1% in the quarter, but still lagged behind the long-term average growth rate of 2.8% seen over the past year.
The figures also show that Scotland’s retail sector continues to be outperformed by the wider UK sector, which has posted total average sales growth of 2.7% over the course of the last year.
This compares to the 1.3% uplift north of the border.
Scottish Retail Consortium director David Lonsdale said the figures showed that more people were visiting shops up and down the country.
However, they were remaining canny about how much they spent.
“Scottish consumers clearly remain cautious,” he said.