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Snow excuse for low retail sales
Retailers mostly overcame the December blizzards to post respectable sales figures, business advisory group BDO said yesterday. Despite the coldest December for 100 years, sales dropped by just half a per cent. And some stores, such as John Lewis, reported healthy sales growth. Fears of products being snowed into factories failed to materialise, as non store sales (such as internet purchases) were up 45 per cent, said BDO. Stores with underlying problems can’t use the snow as an excuse for large drops in sales, BDO said.