But drop in shopper traffic not as bad as feared
Although the British Retail Consortium said it was retailers' worst July for 10 years, customer traffic monitor FootFall has today said poor performance was caused as much by one-off events as consumer disenchantment.

FootFall found shopper numbers in July were down by 1.1 per cent month on month and 1.8 per cent year on year. However, FootFall marketing manager Natasha Burton noted that the drop was not as bad as FootFall expected.

She said: 'Not only were there terror attacks in London, but we also enjoyed a prolonged period of hot weather, which discouraged people from spending time indoors and kept consumers out of the shops. At the beginning of the month there was the Live8 concert, which many people chose to watch at home, and July is also the start of the main holiday season.'

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