British retailers see "seismic shift"

Gas (sorry, petrol) prices in the UK are always high but now they're even higher. Even when buying with the British Pound which is almost double the strength of the US dollar, it's still expensive. This week has been especially bad for the British retailer Marks & Spencer who has lost around $2.5 billion in value. Even worse, M&S stock is 1/3 of its value one year ago. One of the problems they are facing today is the high cost of gas which is keeping shoppers closer to home instead of driving to the big shopping centers. I have not read anything (yet) about this in the US though it would not come as much of a surprise if the situation was the same.

People driving less is not necessarily a bad thing, but it's still a radical change and is adding to the current problems. There are countless after-shocks courtesy of the weak dollar so despite the new round of "the weak dollar ain't so bad" stories, it is. There's a difference between a weak dollar and a 98 pound weakling at the beach dollar and right now, we're not even at 98 pounds, we're weaker. In the coming weeks and months expect many more changes in business coming from the weak dollar/high oil prices.