Is any retailer truly immune from the downturn?

Archived article dated Thursday June 12th 2008

At the Retail Bulletin we've been pretty critical of the excuses retailers keep trotting out about their supposed immunity to the downturn.

But we might have to eat our words judging by research from market analysts CACI.

It has found what it calls 'credit crunch resistant consumers' that account for a sizeable 10 per cent of the population (equating to 5.1 million people) who are typically aged over 55, are empty-nesters, are recently retired and have decent pensions.

Needless to say there are specific pockets of the country where this breed tend to live which include Horsley & Effingham in Surrey, Virginia Water in Surrey, the Barbican in London and Brockenhurst in Hamphire. In each of these areas they represent 43 per cent of the population. Where you won't find any of them is in various parts of Birmingham, Liverpool and Middlesbrough.

So the trick for retailers seems to be to locate your shops in these areas and to make sure you've got plenty of things to tempt the older consumer. CACI found that the two retailers who are proving most attractive to this grouping are Sainsbury's and Marks & Spencer although in the case of the latter its recent numbers suggest that these people haven't exactly helped it avoid the downturn. So maybe we have been right all along - no retailer is entirely immune.

Tagged as: glynn davis | caci | downturn | consumer | credit crunch

Text size: A | A | A