Interesting article and also an amusing one...
"[HMV's] core music and DVD market is falling faster than expected," said retail analyst Nick Bubb of stockbrokers Arden Partners, despite attempts to change their sales mix, offering iPods and live music.
He describes the snow impact as a "silly excuse" noting that the strong showing by John Lewis gives the lie to many retailers' claims that Christmas sales suffered because of poor weather conditions."
Yes, it's a really silly excuse when the weather effectively closes down Birmingham city centre for the latter half of what should have been one of the busiest days of the year, another weekday in the same period sees the city covered in dense freezing fog and less people than you'd normally see on a Sunday...
guess weather effects are imaginary if you're a retail analyst but then as you're an analyst, you probably don't have to deal with reality anyway...
