World Cup has led to many retailers suffering a blow as consumers stay indoors to watch matches as opposed to hitting the high street.
However the football tournament also serves as a convenient excuse for retailers needing to explain weak trading figures.
One such retailer is Woolworths which has revealed that total group sales from its combined retail and entertainment, wholesale and publishing businesses for the 19 weeks to June 10, 2006 have decreased 0.4 percent and in a further setback for the retailer, like-for-like sales for the period fell by 6.7 percent.
The retailer blamed 0.5 percent of this decrease on the temporary closure of 54 stores during the period to enable much-needed refits. But even after accounting for the disruption to sales, the company is still performing badly in comparison to its peers.
With official retail sales figures revealing average sales growth of 3.0 percent in the year to May and 3.6 percent growth in April - the best run of growth since Autumn 2004 - Woolworths is clearly doing something wrong.
The problem with the retailer is its product mix - too many products and such a broad focus that it struggles to compete against specialists that offer range authority and grocers that offer low prices.
To deal with this long standing problem, the company is accelerating its 10/10 store conversion program, and is set to deploy self service internet kiosks in 100 of its stores by the end of the year.
These will enable customers to buy products not sold in stores, including electrical items supplied by Comet and CDs and DVDs sourced via its distribution arm EUK. The kiosks are standalone terminals and there are also plans to enable customers to pay with cash at the kiosks, a feature that may well prove popular with cash-constrained Woolworths customers.
While Woolworths' plans to drive footfall and broaden its appeal are sensible, it may be hard for Woolworths to compete head to head with Argos which has far greater experience with this style of retailing.
Though the company is making efforts to reduce markdowns and boost volumes it needs to do more to drive footfall and reclaim share from its major competitors, particularly the major grocers.
