The UK riots which started in London on Saturday 6th August have now spread to nine other UK cities and is continuing. Many shops owners have closed early and some have not even opened at all, not knowing what they will come back to find in the morning.
Victims of the riots face tough financial times as they try and repair the damage to their businesses and livelihoods. Costs will not only incur from the damage to the commercial property, but also for loss of earnings and stock. Richard Dodd from the British Retail Consortium (BRC) explained that some businesses may not be able to recover at all, “It is clear that the cost of the damage is going to run into the tens of millions of pounds at least in terms of property damage, goods stolen and loss of business.” He then went onto say, “Undoubtedly there will be retailers for whom this will be the final horrendous straw and it won’t be viable for them to reopen.”
Small businesses that cannot survive the effects of these riots, will be forced to close up, thus leaving many boarded up shops dotted around towns. But will there be demand for the commercial spaces after what has happened? After all, the world has witnessed these riots as Stephen Robertson, Direct General at BRC put across, “We mustn’t underestimate the fact that the pictures on our television screens were beamed to the world last night.”
However, it is not only small independent firms that were hit, many large branded stores such as Tesco, JD Sports, Carphone Warehouse and Sony are just some of the brands that were targeted from looters. The effects that the riots have on individual businesses will vary and it is still too early to tell, but Sony is already feeling the consequences as deliveries of DVDs and CDs will be delayed due to one of its warehouses being set on fire.
