Did a Christmas miracle take place? Did the great British consumer defy recession, inflation and energy bills?
Well, there’s a grain of truth in the gloom-defying narrative, thus the liberal use by big-name retailers of phrases such as “confirm guidance” and “at the upper end of guidance” when forecasting their full-year profits. But, after a week of trading updates, the wider picture is nuanced. The story looks more like this: strong retailers remained strong; shopkeeping’s stragglers, or at least a few of them, fell further behind.
