Interesting Facts

No surprises here, as a survey carried out by MoneySavingExpert.com, found that shoppers are infuriated by constantly being asked "Can I help you?" in shops. (Two-thirds of shoppers asked found offers of assistance from pushy staff annoying and put them off buying, only a fifth thought it saved them having to seek out help. Of course the poor shop assistants are forced to do this by over zealous managers who can't bear the thought of them standing around doing nothing. The main problem nowadays is that you can't even escape this kind of robotic selling on the internet, as more and more sites insist on telling you that other people bought this along with that, sometimes with avatars whose eyes follow you round the page. No - give me a human any time, at least they can take the hint, "I'm just looking, thank you."

According to retail research firm Experian, up to 35,000 shops could close in the UK this year. (After surveying British town centres, they discovered that the high streets in Walkden - Greater Manchester, Harwich - Essex and Gateshead - Tyneside had the most vacant shops with almost 60% of retail premises standing empty. As the recession starts to really bite people have stopped shopping till they drop.)

In the UK more than 3.5 million people have admitted shoplifting in the past five years. (Now remember shoplifting means stealing from shops, not weight training with them.)