[Palmnuts]

Some very interesting thoughts on this thread.

I work for one of the UK's larger high street retailers (not in their retail business though) and whilst it has also been a very, very tough year for the retail side, one thing they do (that I don't see happening in the businesses that are getting into trouble) is constantly reinvent themselves....by that I mean moving with the market on product (leading the market in some cases) and developing a fairly robust multi-channel strategy that allows customers to buy online/on the phone/in-store yet also encourages all customers to go into store at some point (where they can spend more money ).

Thankfully, I work for the online 'value' side of the business....the exact area that consumers go to when they want to spend less when buying the product we sell and as such, we're doing OK (and OK is about as good as it gets in such a saturated market!). Admittedly, the product we sell is relatively exciting, high technology and very image driven so we benefit as much as anyone from consumers' needs to own the latest most fashionable things! I certainly would't like to be working for a regular high street retailer that sells jumpers or furniture or a mixture of product that people don't really 'want' (for instance, you don't buy a washing machine because you 'want' it...it's normally a distress purchase because you 'need' it)