According to The Horticultural Trades Association ’s Market Update , consumer financial confidence has increase by three point in November . The major leverage index has also increase by seven point , indicating consumers ’ willingness to buy large ticket items in the trail - up to Christmas . This could be call news for garden retailers and other horticultural businesses for December . However , with the new Covid variant and government measures introduced to reduce its impact , any result on sales agreement and footfall in the first part of December are yet to be reported .
Christmas shopping is now in full swing , and though the cut-rate sale of Christmas products was down 11 percentage compared to November 2020 , they were up 38 percent from November 2019 . ignitor and tree decorations were both down 12 pct from November 2020 ’s sales , which were likely impacted by the lockdown . Still , they were up significantly from November 2019 ( lights +98 percent ; tree diagram decorations +93 percent ) . Sales of contrived Christmas trees have been on par with gross revenue from 2019 and down 32 percent from 2020 . This could be because artificial trees have a long product lifecycle , which could have been shifted onward to last class as consumers looked for different elbow room of produce a restricted Christmas cheerier . Real Christmas tree sale have also increased from 2019 , up by an impressive 42 percent .
Though this is unspoilt news for retailer , the consumer upshot tracker showed one in four British grownup see the pandemic as a concerning matter and it seems probable that the emergence of the newfangled discrepancy will likely stimulate increase concern and behavioral changes , influencing consumer confidence and garden midpoint sales .
The major issue consumers listed as their main concern during November 2021 was pollution / climate change , with four in ten citizenry stating it was a worry to them - the high since its comprehension in the survey in 1988 , in all likelihood due to largescale medium coverage of the COP26 conference .
In employment news show , the UK unemployment rate had lowered to 4.3 percentage in September 2021 , as the Book of Job market continue to recover from the personal effects of the pandemic . However , the entire job vacancies accomplish another record high with 1.17 million vacancies ; over 300,00 higher than pre - pandemic times . This is probable to continue to have topic for businesses struggling to negotiate the highly competitive recruitment grocery store . The HTA continues to lobby the government for support in easing some of the insistency through changes to the Seasonal Worker Pilot Scheme .
