Pint of wine anyone? UK looks to bring back ‘silly measure’

Winemakers question plan as government champions Brexit ‘freedom’ to allow old-fashioned size

The poet Robert Burns imagined a man toasting his lover with a “pint o’ wine”, and Winston Churchill was perhaps the most famous proponent of the pint bottle for champagne. Now, Rishi Sunak’s government has spied a “Brexit opportunity” to legalise the sale of wine by the pint once more – if it can persuade anyone to make the bottles.

Still and sparkling wine will be sold in 200ml, 500ml and 568ml (pint) sizes in 2024, alongside existing measures, under new rules, the Department for Business and Trade (DBT) announced on Wednesday. It said the change was made possible by Brexit.

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Boxing Day footfall rises but number of shoppers is well down on pre-Covid levels

Weaker Christmas spending amid cost of living crisis and fewer shops opening cut visitor numbers by 30% on 2019

Retailers have recorded a small pickup in Boxing Day footfall, but visits to stores remained well below pre-pandemic levels as several high street chains stayed shut.

Retailers have been braced for weak spending over the Christmas period as the UK economy stagnates amid the cost of living crisis.

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Boxing Day sales: retailers expect shoppers to spend $1.25bn amid cost-of-living crisis

Australian Retail Association predicts $23.9bn in spending for sales period ending on 15 January

Retailers are expecting Boxing Day shoppers to spend $1.25bn on Tuesday as the sector hopes for relief from a drop in discretionary spending.

Retail sales have been sluggish throughout 2023 as cost-of-living pressures bite.

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Labour to crack down on ‘dodgy’ candy stores in push to revive high streets

Party says American-style sweetshops – some under investigation for tax evasion – are ripping off public

A Labour government will launch a crackdown on “dodgy” candy stores if it wins the next election, as part of plans to revitalise Britain’s high streets.

There are more than 20 of the US-themed sweet stores on Oxford Street, London, alone. Many of them appeared during lockdown as high-street stalwarts closed down and landlords faced the prospect of long-term empty shops.

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Christmas Eve shopper numbers fall amid Sunday trading and cost-of-living crisis

Footfall was nearly 7% lower than last week and more than a fifth down on 2022 levels

The number of in-person shoppers has fallen on Christmas Eve compared to last year amid Sunday trading hours and the cost-of-living crisis.

Footfall across all UK retail destinations up to 5pm on Sunday was 6.8% lower than last week, and 20.6% lower than 24 December 2022, the latest data from industry analyst MRI Software shows.

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Woolworths issues recall for Christmas mince pies over potential metal contamination

Supermarket says there have been no complaints and the New South Wales recall is being done as a ‘precaution’

The chance of metal contamination has led to supermarket giant Woolworths issuing a recall in New South Wales for a batch of a common Christmas treat.

Woolworths said the affected product is Shortcrust Summer Berry Mince Pies, sold in six-packs, with a “best before” date of 13 June 2024.

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Nike to axe hundreds of jobs in bid to save $2bn amid sales slump

US sportswear brand announces job cuts and simplification of product ranges in ‘streamlining’ of operations

Nike is to cut hundreds of jobs, simplify its product ranges and increase its use of automation as part of attempts to save $2bn (£1.6bn) in costs over the next three years amid poor sales.

The US sportswear brand said it was “taking steps to streamline the organisation” and would be spending up to $450m on the changes, mainly on payoffs for employees.

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Ikea warns Red Sea attacks could disrupt supplies and deliveries

Firm says it is weighing up options to secure product availability amid Yemeni rebel attacks on shipping

Ikea has warned that the disruption to global trade caused by Yemeni rebel attacks in the Red Sea could delay its deliveries and affect availability of some products.

The world’s largest furniture company said it was “evaluating other supply options to secure the availability of our products” after many big shipping companies stopped sending vessels through the Suez canal in response to the attacks by Houthi militants’ protests against the Israel-Gaza war.

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More than 100 container ships rerouted from Suez canal to avoid Houthi attacks

Cape of Good Hope diversion adds 6,000 nautical miles and three or four weeks to delivery times and has driven up oil prices

More than 100 container ships have been rerouted around southern Africa to avoid the Suez canal, in a sign of the disruption to global trade caused by Houthi rebels attacking vessels on the western coast of Yemen.

The shipping company Kuehne and Nagel said it had identified 103 ships that had already changed course, with more expected to go around South Africa’s Cape of Good Hope.

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Fortnum & Mason online customers hampered by service ‘glitches’

Online shoppers at the upmarket London grocer complain about being billed twice and being on hold for nearly 90 minutes

Customers of the luxury grocer Fortnum & Mason have been complaining about difficulties placing orders and getting a response from customer services during a busy Christmas period for the retailer.

Some shoppers at the store, which holds a royal warrant and is famed for its Christmas hampers, have taken to social media and review websites to complain about being charged multiple times after repeating transactions thinking they had not gone through.

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Costco sells $100m in gold bars in most recent quarter

Retailer began selling bars of 24-karat gold online in September, with each release selling out ‘within a few hours’

Known for selling goods in bulk, Costco’s latest such offering – gold bars – has proved a hit, with $100m worth sold in the most recent quarter, Business Insider reported.

With demand for the precious metal rising globally amid the economic uncertainty of the past few years, Costco in September began selling 1oz (28g) bars of 24-karat gold exclusively online, with Costco members eligible to buy two apiece. The retailer has more than 72m paid memberships.

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Currys boss: minimum wage hike shows government does not ‘care’ about retail

Planned 10% UK increase as business rates rise will put pressure on already overburdened industry, says Alex Baldock

The boss of Currys has accused the government of failing to “understand or care” about UK retailers by pushing through a “big hike” in the UK’s minimum wage.

Alex Baldock’s comments come weeks after chancellor Jeremy Hunt announced plans to increase the legal minimum wage for the UK’s lowest paid workers to £11.44 an hour, representing a hike of almost 10%, from April 2024. The move will force employers to pay full time workers around £1,800 more per year.

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Sainsbury’s boss defends decision to sell customers’ Nectar card data

Supermarket says it protects personal data ‘incredibly carefully’ and move makes ads ‘more relevant’

The chief executive of Sainsbury’s has defended its decision to sell data on the shopping habits of his customers to TV and consumer goods manufacturers looking to target their advertising.

Simon Roberts has said the supermarket group protects personal data “incredibly carefully” and that its strategy had made adverts more “relevant” for shoppers.

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China overtakes US as branded coffee shop capital of the world

Number rose by almost 60% in a year to 49,691 stores, making China ‘a global coffee industry powerhouse’

The branded coffee chain craze may trace its roots to a single Starbucks in Seattle’s Pike Place market in 1971, but now China has toppled the US as the country with the most branded coffee shops.

The number of branded coffee shops in China increased by 58% over the past 12 months to a record 49,691 outlets, according to research by World Coffee Portal. That was more than 9,000 in excess of the 40,062 in the US, where the market grew by just 4%. The US had held the crown as the world’s biggest coffee shop market for the entire 20-year history of the research.

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UK Christmas shoppers will pay more for less this year, say economists

Cost of festive season is up almost a quarter in three years, according to the Centre for Economics and Business Research

Consumers will pay more for less this Christmas, economists have warned, getting less of a bang for their buck than the faint phutting of a puny, overpriced cracker being pulled.

Although Britons will spend more than in the belt-tightening 2022 festive season, the resultant fare won’t yet match the pre-pandemic Christmases past.

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‘The optics are terrible’: how Rishi Sunak’s 2020 ‘eat out to help out’ scheme backfired

The then chancellor’s plan proved to be of no economic benefit and was decried by scientists – but it clearly set out the political aims of ‘Dishy Rishi’

There is no blue heritage plaque above the stainless-steel open kitchen at the branch of Wagamama at London’s Festival Hall – but the restaurant might have claims to one. It was here, in delivering a couple of plates of katsu curry – one chicken, one vegan – on 8 July 2020, that our current prime minister in effect launched his campaign for the country’s leadership.

During that lockdown spring as pandemic chancellor, Rishi Sunak had one of the few enviable public roles: he was cast as the man who saved the economy by giving money away. By the time he pitched up at Wagamama that lunchtime, his various Covid-help schemes had dished out £176bn in furlough payments and loans and deferred taxes. In those efforts Sunak, little known before the crisis, had sometimes looked like the only sober and responsible member of her majesty’s government. The headline act of his summer budget statement, “eat out to help out”, changed that narrative.

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Wilko rescue failed because ‘everyone got a little bit greedy’, says HMV owner

Retailer’s suppliers did not think of 12,000-plus jobs that could have been saved, claims Doug Putman

The HMV owner Doug Putman has said his planned rescue of the retailer Wilko collapsed because “everyone just got a little bit greedy” and was not thinking about the jobs that could have been saved.

The Canadian retail billionaire, who has engineered a turnaround of HMV in the UK and owns Toys R Us in Canada, was close to a deal to take over as many as 200 of Wilko’s 408 stores in September, which would have saved more than 12,000 jobs.

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Thousands of HSBC customers in UK unable to access online banking services

Consumers report problems using bank’s app on one of the busiest shopping days of year, Black Friday

Thousands of HSBC customers reported they were unable to access its online and mobile banking services on one of the busiest online shopping days of the year – Black Friday.

More than 4,000 customers said they could not access their accounts via the HSBC app on Friday, according to Downdetector, which tracks and collates website outages and complaints.

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Macy’s workers launch Black Friday strike in Washington state

About 400 workers walk out in dispute over allegedly unfair labor practices and failure to agree new contract

About four hundred Macy’s workers in Washington state began striking on Friday – known as Black Friday among retailers and one of the year’s busiest shopping days – citing allegedly unfair labor practices and the retail giant’s purported refusal to agree to a new contract.

The union representing the employees, UFCW 3000, said workers started arriving about 3am on Friday to form picket lines. Workers are striking outside the Alderwood, Southcenter and Bellis Fair Macy’s stores and plan to continue for three days.

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John Lewis to partner with Randox Health to open clinics in stores

In effort to attract customers amid falling sales, retailer joins forces with Covid testing firm to offer full-body health checks

John Lewis is to team up with Covid testing firm Randox Health to open clinics within its shops in the latest effort to draw in customers amid tough trading conditions.

The clinics, which will be run by Randox staff, will offer full-body health checks including tests for vitamin deficiencies, hormone imbalances and key health concerns, among other services.

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