Retailers experienced the worst fall in sales on record last month as shops were forced to shut up and down the country.
Total sales fell by 4.3pc in March, compared with 1.8pc decline for the same month last year, figures from the British Retail Council (BRC) and KPMG showed. It was the sharpest decline in the 25 years that the numbers have been collated.
Sales before and after shoppers were asked to stay at home were in stark contrast. In the first three weeks, they rose by 12pc, then plunged by 27pc in the last two weeks.
This is mostly because all non-essential retailers had to close their stores as the outbreak took hold.
Who would have thought it?
Shops which are closed sell nothing. Makes you wonder why they bother to unlock them each morning in more normal times….
