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RETAIL SALES SHOWED that we spent less on clothing, books and furniture in April compared to the same month last year – and Retail Ireland has said it is worried at the news.
The figures are contained in the latest CSO results, which show that the volume of retail sales increased by 0.2 per cent in April 2013 when compared with March 2013, but that there was a decrease of 0.5 per cent in the annual figure.
If motor trades are excluded, the volume of retail sales decreased by 0.3 per cent in April 2013 when compared with March 2013 and there was an annual decrease of 0.3 per cent.
Increase
The sectors with the largest month on month volume increases are books, newspapers and stationery (+8.7 per cent ), electrical goods (+2.6 per cent) and motor trade (+1.7 per cent).
The sectors with the largest monthly decreases were food, beverages and tobacco – specialised stores (-4.5 per cent) and department stores (-3.6 per cent).
Retail Ireland, the IBEC group that represents the retail sector, said the figures showed the second consecutive annual fall and pointed to the serious need for a set of actions to help the domestic economy.
Retail Ireland Director Stephen Lynam said:
These figures are very worrying. We are now seeing a reversal of the trend in overall sales growth that we saw late last year and earlier this year. The worst hit sectors in April were clothing (-5.8 per cent annually), books (-5.2 per cent) and furniture (-5.1 per cent).
It wasn’t all bad news, however. Supermarkets, department stores and electrical outlets saw increases in sales. Prices are down across the board so consumers can avail of huge value in shops throughout the country.
Lynam said that an inter-departmental group on retail, announced as part of the Action Plan for Jobs, “must come up with proposals to stimulate the domestic economy and tackle issues like high retailer costs”.
The number one priority for the Government from now until Budget season must be to give consumers hope and a reason to start spending. Until that happens, the domestic economy cannot hope to see growth.
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out of the 253 incidents, how many were carried out by foreign nationals?.
Are u taking the piss.
David, I don`t think Ando is taking the piss. This activity seems to be the exclusive domain of foreign nationals. I don`t know the set up, but a check of the stats will show you that nearly all of those caught at this ATM game are of Eastern European origin. That is not a racist remark, simply the facts.
How does it matter?
David, care to provide source of your statistics?
Maybe he asked Homer Simpson…. Seems to work for Danny.
Where you get your stats is a valid question…so where did they come from???
Do u not mean ando???
Plus I believe it was irish low lives that crashed a JCB into a shop and stole the whole ATM.
In 2006, I was at a seminar on ATM Security and Fraud.The speaker (Head of Security for a major Irish Bank) stated that 9 out of 10 devices found on machines were traced back to an Eastern European or Russian crime syndicate.We were informed that some of the devices, that are extremely high tech, are worth €250,000 euro each!Many of the guys who plant them on the machines have been people trafficked into Ireland and to repay their exorbitant travel costs, they must attach and collect data from ‘skimming’ machines!The other ‘skimming’ machines (1 in 10) that were found were far more crudely made and attributed to Nigerian crime outfits.
So going by what this guy told us, in 2006, 100% of ATM ‘skimming’ machines were foreign made and owned. Maybe this has changed and other nationalities (including Irish) have taken up what is a highly lucrative activity estimated to be worth anywhere between €3.5 and €10 million every year!
One word…Romanians
One word: Romani. Romanians and Romani quite difference, ignorant heads will never comprehend. In Romania there is lot of decent hard working people (in Ireland too), these are gypsies from Romania that give them bad name and awful presence all over the world.
@dirpaddy.. I have been to Romania and they are a lovely race of people who are sick to death of people like you who confuse them with Roma.. have you ever met a real Romania as opposed to a Roma? it’s very hard to spot a Romanian person a they just look continental.. of all the countries I have visited in Europe Romania was the biggest suprise, its a bit backward but the people are friendly charming and very kind.
Gents,
You should know well by now that you cannot say a word about anyone from abroad because you will be immediately accused of not being a happy-clappy multiculturalist.
That we all know the answer is not enough.
its simply not PC to talk about foreigners ( yes, there, I said it, the F word !!) and their involvement in anything, other than religious festivals and projects run by women with double-barrelled surnames
Ah come on The journal, ATM Machine? Really? Automated Teller Machine Machine? like pin number? pcb board?
@Brian @Ando
Yeah sure, everything bad in this country is because of foreigners. They steal your jobs, they steal from your atm’s, they steal your women, etc. etc. :-)
To be bit more serious, I doubt there are any statistics showing what you are suggesting, most likely these stats are nothing more than a product of your prejudiced imagination.
In fact there were few news in past year or two saying about some eat european gangs skimming ATM’s in Ireland, but I don’t think there is more info than just that. And reason for it is probably only that Irish thugs didn’t have technology that other thugs brought in, not that they were so noble they decided not to ever touch any ATM’s… You want to comment, get your facts right, otherwise you just create biassed lies.
@Derek Marten
OK, thanks for that info, but even knowing these facts, what difference that makes who they are?
If somebody can afford 250K worth skimming equipment, they are not average guys, but mafia.
I’ve googled couple other news from around the world about ATM skimming that took places all over the world, and indeed they quite often mention Bulgarian, Serbian and Russian involvement, whether that be USA or France or Ireland.
However these are clearly people not linked with any East European minorities living in Ireland or any other country, but they are professional criminal groups doing their “jobs” all over the world. Suggestions made here in couple comments were quite obviously made towards East Eur. immigrants leaving in Ireland like they were to blame. Believe me that east E.U. people bank accounts were robbed too, I doubt criminals were doing refunds for non English sounding names :P
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