Shopping and dropping

If you're feeling brave, go up to someone waving a posh shopping bag around and ask them what's really inside.
Chances are, it might be something cheaper than the bag suggests.
How come? Last week, Marks and Spencer announced job cuts and tough trading. This morning, Primark tells us its sales in the festive period were up a whacking 18%.
What's going on here is classic recession behaviour: cautious consumers trading down from posher brands to cheaper ones.
So we're willing to spend, but not so much as we did.
A couple of other big High Street names have told us how they've been doing today.
Argos sales were down 7.5%, probably because it is losing a few sales to Tesco's electrical department and possibly because people aren't spending as much on electricals anywhere (why buy a new washing machine when you can't move house?).
For the evidence of that look no further than DSG, the owner of Currys and PC World. Its sales were down 10%. Pods, laptops and flatscreens are still selling, but mostly in the cut-price (and lower profit) January sales.
Finally, if any Nottingham Trent or University of Nottingham graduates are struggling to find a high-flying career go and have a walk round your nearest Aldi: it's announced it will be increasing the number of degree-educated managers it is taking on by 50%.
With a starting salary of £40,000 it's a bargain...