THE poor summer has hit the high street. Heavy rain, high winds and low temperatures mean many UK retailers have seen summer stock lingering on the rails and shops in Guernsey have also been affected, many by the cancellation of lucrative cruise liner visits.

According to one local retailer two cruise ships were cancelled recently, meaning she lost out on more than 4,000 potential customers.

But Burton Menswear manager Trevor Bourgaize was optimistic about trade at the shop.

‘We don’t have masses of summer stock left.

‘These days, short sleeves go through the winter.

‘Obviously, if trade had been better we wouldn’t have anything left at all really, but that’s the nature of the business. As April and May were good, the shopping was good and we didn’t miss out. It would have been a lot worse if April and May had seen awful weather.’

Creaseys managing director Tony Creasey said: ‘It’s a bit difficult to generalise.

‘I can only go on my own business. The general belief is that the summer has been a challenge for retailers, but there will be some success stories.

‘Obviously it’s always good to see cruise ships when they do come.

‘They don’t always bring revenue into Town but they help the economy generally, but they aren’t in themselves important to us.’