“What Credit Crunch?” Say Furlong traders

The retailers of Ringwood have bucked the trend of the doom and gloom stories of shops on Britain’s High Streets.

The stores in the Furlong Centre along with the rest of the country’s retailers, had a very uncertain start to Christmas with struggling sales figures.

However there was a rallying call close to Christmas which resulted in the Furlong’s Waitrose having their best ever pre-Christmas sales albeit rather later than usual.

Furlong stores who started their sales rather earlier this year are also reporting a bumper success.

Phase Eight had a sale which started at the beginning of December and carried on through January, they are reporting record sales. Said Rosemary Taylor the manager, “It has been absolutely fantastic, we topped last year despite everything.”

Hobbs also started their sales early. Manager, Amy Scott, said, “Unbelievably good. Obviously people were waiting for the sales. What a success we had, much better than last year.

East also did extremely well. Manager, Jemma Parsons said, “We haven’t stopped, I don’t know what is happening in the rest of the country but our sales are doing amazingly well.” Jaeger and Fat Face also traded as well as the previous years. Lynette Neal, manager of Jaeger said, “We thought we would really have a struggle, but it was much better than expected.”

In addition the new Furlong fashion store, Crew Clothing has found a market niche in Ringwood. Said the manager Emma Kunert, “We have done extremely well altogether but particularly so  with our new season’s menswear range, trading far better than expected.”

Furlong Furniture is also delighted with its two week sale in January.  Owner, David Smith said, “Christmas is traditionally a slow time for us, so December was quite normal, but I was absolutely blown away by our two weeks at the start of our sale in January. In the fifteen years we have been trading in Ringwood we have never done so well. I have taken over a new unit in the Furlong to cope with the extra demand.”

The new owner of Frampton’s Mill café  Janet Strange, remarked: “I can’t compare with last year, as we have only just taken over, but we did notice that trade was slow until December 19 and then everything picked up, and we have been trading very well  since.”

Most of the Furlong Shops are approaching the final reductions in their sale stock and the fashion stores now have their new season’s range coming in earlier than usual to make sure all the rails are filled.

The Furlong stores really believe that they, anyway, are in for a buoyant new year. Said Rosemary Taylor of Phase Eight “Credit Crunch, what Credit Crunch?”