{"id":486940,"date":"2025-10-10T00:01:15","date_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:01:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486940\/"},"modified":"2025-10-10T00:01:15","modified_gmt":"2025-10-10T00:01:15","slug":"belfast-bucks-retail-trend-but-consumers-remain-cautious-the-irish-news","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/486940\/","title":{"rendered":"Belfast bucks retail trend \u2013 but consumers remain cautious \u2013 The Irish News"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Low consumer confidence ahead of a potential tax-rising Budget kept many shoppers away from UK retail locations in September, according to latest data.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">But Belfast fared third best of all UK cities for footfall in the five weeks from August 1 to October 4, growing by 1.6%, while Northern Ireland as a whole saw just a 0.5% year-on-year decline in shopper numbers compared to dips across England (down 1.8%), Scotland (down 2.3%) and Wales (down 2.5%).<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cIt\u2019s clear that consumers remain circumspect, perhaps concerned by the seemingly endless media stories about what will or won\u2019t be in the UK Budget at the end of November,\u201d according to Neil Johnston, director of the NI Retail Consortium, which produces the data in association with Sensormatic.<\/p>\n<p><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"The so-called &#x2018;golden quarter&#x2019; didn't really happen for retailers in Northern Ireland as footfall over the three months was down 3% on the previous year\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/YLOL4B5D5BH3PMLP4FP7EL4YKI.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"800\"\/>NI Retail Consortium director Neil Johnston <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cConsumers are also being influenced by the persistence of inflation, especially food inflation which has risen off the back of the last Budget, when they do venture out to local shops.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/newry-technology-firm-statsports-acquired-by-sony-in-multi-million-pound-deal-4DUPTS6JKRGNNH55AV54NGMPKY\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Newry technology firm STATSports acquired by Sony in multi-million pound deal\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/1760054473_652_GABFIMONYFGF3HVTB4ASMWT4UU.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><a class=\"c-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.irishnews.com\/news\/business\/newry-fit-out-firm-adds-100m-in-sales-and-doubles-profits-during-exceptional-year-IM7RW3CNTJCN3CHF4U4TY2QCWY\/\" aria-hidden=\"true\" tabindex=\"-1\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\"><img decoding=\"async\" data-chromatic=\"ignore\" alt=\"Newry fit-out firm adds &#xA3;100m in sales and doubles profits during &#x2018;exceptional&#x2019; year\" class=\"c-image\" loading=\"lazy\" src=\"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/10\/RFYRPGKZ4RA35FKSFXQGU55XBY.jpg\"  width=\"800\" height=\"450\"\/><\/a><\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">He added: \u201cRetailers have their own concerns about what will be in the Budget. Last year\u2019s budget added to the costs of employment, which is making it harder for retailers to keep prices down. <\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cHealthy competition between retailers keeps price rises to a minimum but when government adds more tax and regulation such as the plastics or packaging tax some of that cost is inevitably passed on to consumers.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">Andy Sumpter from Sensormatic said: \u201cThe month began with a modest uplift, driven by back-to-school shopping, but momentum was quickly disrupted.<\/p>\n<p class=\"c-paragraph\">\u201cRetailers will now be hoping that September\u2019s slowdown was less a sign of retreat and more a pause for thought.\u201d<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Low consumer confidence ahead of a potential tax-rising Budget kept many shoppers away from UK retail locations in&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":486941,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5011],"tags":[2378,6330,1144,363,16,15],"class_list":{"0":"post-486940","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-northern-ireland","8":"tag-belfast","9":"tag-footfall","10":"tag-northern-ireland","11":"tag-retail","12":"tag-uk","13":"tag-united-kingdom"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115346937929964367","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486940","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=486940"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/486940\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/486941"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=486940"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=486940"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=486940"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}