“We have been living in a disposable culture for a long time now, almost by default rather than by design, because it was too difficult to go to things like car boot sales or we weren't in the vicinity of them. Ebay makes all of that easy.”
“There's quite a lot of promotional activity out there, more than last year. Retailers are desperate to maximize their footfall and recognize that in order to do that they need to give people a significant incentive to come into their stores.”
“If you have the right offer at the right price, you can enjoy the luxury of pricing integrity. If you are a bit weaker but ahead of the game, you can use some good promotions. But if you're really struggling, you are probably going to have to go on sale, and that's really going to affect your margins.”
“You're not buying someone else's relationships. OK, so if you [do] buy you get a store network and staff but they've all been used to operating in a certain way. This way is baggage free.”
“Our forecasts do not anticipate any major increase in retail price inflation ever again. Over the last 10 years, we calculate that women have doubled the average number of items they buy themselves in a year.”
