Fleet Toys putting on a brave face < Fleet News

Corporate Event Catering & Hospitality - Williams Hospitality Ltd

Menu

Fleet News

Business

Leisure

Tourism

Other Stuff

Submit Your Business

Contact

Fleet Town > Fleet News > Fleet Toys putting on a brave face

Fleet Toys putting on a brave face

25th October 2008

Sheila and Keith Gregory have been running a toyshop for more than 20 years. Their store on the high street of Fleet in Hampshire sells everything from rocking horses to big branded toys like Playmobil and Sylvanian Families.

Independent shopkeepers like the Gregorys have every reason to fear that this year their Christmas trade could be the worst in living memory. After all, the economy is on the brink of recession and consumers are becoming worried as job losses mount.

But for now Sheila Gregory is putting on a brave face. “Trade has not been as bad as we would have expected. In the past five or six weeks turnover has even been slightly up on last year. I guess people will still find money for their children at Christmas,” she said.

Gregory hopes that high petrol prices may even help smaller retailers as shoppers abandon costly trips to bigger towns and regional shopping centres in favour of buying their gifts locally.

And she shrugs off comparisons with previous downturns: “So far it has been nowhere near as bad as the recession of the early 1990s. Last time interest rates were so high that it was very frightening for people – but now they are much lower and are coming down. And in the 1990s people didn't earn such big salaries and have the same level of disposable income they have today.”


Killer Died During 'Raid on Drugs Den'	6th November
THE cousin of murdered Dwayne Ayres was remanded in custody yesterday accused with two others of agg... more
Freed killer driver targeted in revenge attack	3rd November
A MURDER investigation was under way last night after a man was stabbed to death in what may have be... more
Fleet Toys putting on a brave face	25th October
Sheila and Keith Gregory have been running a toyshop for more than 20 years. Their store on the high... more
	Fleet News