Lets start with some Retail Therapy and if youre a shop owner you probably need it. A new report says top destination shopping streets can still thrive in select parts of new york and london. But this is a far cry from the rest of the Retail Sector which can feel like its fighting for survival. According to a recent prediction, amazon is expected to control nearly 50 of the us e Commerce Market by the end of the year. It also became the Worlds Largest retailer this year, surpassing walmart. In the us, 2019 has been dubbed the retail apocalypse some 8,600 stores will have closed by the end of this year. Its a pattern thats being repeated elsewhere. |n the uk, 1,234 high Street Stores shut in the first half of this year. But shops are starting to move away from just selling things they are begining to offer an experience instead. From things like pop up shops, where customers can try out products, to technology firms, like samsung and apple, who are offering a Customer Service like the genius bar. There is still a need for a physical space for shoppers to go. Richard lim, chief executive, retail economicsjoins me now. This is a problem that has been prevalent on the high street in the uk and us and other cities around the world, particularly in europe, for some time. What is the answer . The answer is a blend of different strategies depending on where you sit on the market, what region you sit on the market, what region you sit in, what your core customer bases and i think thats really critical, the more and more in the uk, its about having a point of differentiation, standing out from your competitors and offering a unique service and proposition that really attract customers and Customer Loyalty and so i think a lot of those characteristics within the Retail Sector as a whole have been lost over the last couple of decades. So many big names have disappeared from our high street. I highlighted the latest one, clintons, the car retailer in the uk. How will retailers move forward in the short term when they are under so much pressure when you got Business Rates, high rentalfees, at cetera. Is government policy quite critical in the short term to keep the shops alive . The main factors at the shops alive . The main factors at the moment really bearing down on reta ile rs the moment really bearing down on retailers operability is rising operating costs so if you look at the data, over the last five years, operating costs within retail have risen by about ii . These have been driven higher by factors like this miss rates, labour costs that have been driven higher by the National Minimum wage, the apprenticeship levy and its all really bearing down on profitability and if you look at the top 150 retailers in the uk, profitability is actually halved in the last eight years. Thats against this context on line, the growing importance of experiences and its putting traditional Business Models under pressure. Would it be a game changer if the government were to reduce rates significantly or landlords were put under pressure to alleviate the pressure on retailers in certain locations, where shops are just standing empty because perhaps a new independent retailerjust cannot afford the rent and can make a profit. It will certainly make a huge difference. Operating costs through Business Rates counter about 10 of operating costs so what this will really allow retailers, but in particular independent retailers, as it will change the economics of Running Stores in a Business Rates continue to drop, the rental market, if Business Rates drop, and the rental market continues to decline, it will allow a healthy churn of independence to operate some of these empty and bacon stores were got across many high streets throughout the uk. Thank you for coming and sharing your expertise and a lot of the comments would had so and a lot of the comments would had so far today. Share your ideas as well. What will lure you to the high street going forward. The escalating unrest in hong kong has mostly failed to upset the local stock market. But this week things have changed and the hang seng has racked up some losses. Lets go to our Asia Business hub where mariko oi is following the story. Mariko, there is a real sense this week that the protest between the pro democracy protesters in the way the reaction, someone being shot earlier this week, its changed. Indeed, sally. As you mentioned, until recently, until this week, the local stock market didnt exactly respond to those ongoing clashes, sometimes violent clashes but on monday we saw that ball about 2. 5 but as you mentioned, we are seeing a fall again but as you mentioned, we are seeing afallagain in but as you mentioned, we are seeing a fall again in the hang seng market and it feels like investors are now willing to start to worry about how these clashes could come to an end and of course, the protest used to be just contained over the weekend, i was there, many times and by monday morning, everything goes back to normal, back to business but this week, we are starting to see those violent protests spreading to university campuses, affecting the Central Business district so it feels like investors are now starting to really worry about it and thats why we are starting to see this reaction in the stock market. Thanks very much for the latest on that. As we discussed on yesterdays programme, china is facing a major crisis as the price of pork has tripled. The country is struggling with a year long outbreak of african swine fever and beijing is importing record levels of pork from the us despite the trade war. Its also trying to source the meat from other countries. Our china correspondent robin brant went to meet a family in nanning, southern china. Nine floors up in an apartment block in one of chinas numerous big busy cities, work is done for the day and life slows down for the family dinner. Its chicken, fish and greens tonight but there is one thing that china eats as much of as the rest of the world put together. This is the only bit of a pig on the table at our dinner, fried intestine. Like millions of dinner tables across china, they are now feeling the impact of african swine fever but its hurting even more here. Tell me a little bit, in business and the market at the moment. How is it . This is nannings main market where huang and li have their business. Swine fever has killed millions of pigs in china. It has killed around 50 of their trade. They have laid off seven workers and now they just have one. Fewer pigs means the price have shot up and people cannot afford as much. Even the woman selling crispy pork belly lunches to the people in the pork market is struggling. After a year of african swine fever spreading, what started out as a problem on farms is now a problem on chinas dinner tables. For these two, pork is their main source of income. For chinas 1. 4 billion people, it is their main sustenance. Can you have chinese dinner without pork . She says we cant stand up if we dont eat pork. Now lets brief you on some other business stories. Elon musk has announced teslas european car factory will be built near the german capital of berlin. He added that the electric car maker will also establish an engineering and Design Centre near berlins new airport. The announcement sends a stark message to some of the worlds most prestigious carmakers that hes headed for their home turf. Alibaba gets a nod to sell shares in hong kong, in a secondary listing that catapults the city back to the top of worlds ipo rankings, reports the south China Morning post. Shares of alibaba are likely to trade in hong kong in the week of november 25, according to sources familiar with the matter the boss of American Food giant tyson has warned that us pork prices have risen in recent weeks at a time when they would normally be falling. Noel white said the price increase is probably the first time african swine fever has significantly affected the us. Thats it for the Business Briefing this hour 100 extra Army Personnel will be deployed to South Yorkshire today to help the recovery effort in areas hit by flooding. The government has announced a support package including compensation for small and medium sized businesses which arent covered by insurance. It follows the evacuation of more than 1,000 properties. Ben ando reports. Emergency supplies reaching the flooded householders wish lake in South Yorkshire. James is typing it out, now six days in, surviving on no heating and a single lightbulb. Two dogs, a god talk kenneth eric to ta ke two dogs, a god talk kenneth eric to take care of, he says evacuation is not an option. Everything is wet, its destroyed. But the big picture is that these bloods have swelled into an election issue. Jeremy corbyn visited the area yesterday and described the governments response is woeful. The lid gems have a similar message. We cannot leave People Living in this awful sense of fear. It is wrong but it seems to be downjust sense of fear. It is wrong but it seems to be down just to the local communities, important as this work is, this is clearly a national emergency. The albums Emergency Cobra Committee met and ordered the armys standby battalion at catterick to be deployed in the Prime Minister offered further reassurance. I Prime Minister offered further reassurance. | know Prime Minister offered further reassurance. I know there will be people who are worrying about the damage to their homes, will be worried about their insurance situation, worried about the losses that they face. All i want to say to those people is that there are schemes to cover those losses. Teams have been working around the clock to save vital infrastructure and flood defences have worked elsewhere to protect around 13,500 properties but more bad weather is expected tomorrow and friday and these bloods are not over yet. Ben ando, bbc news. More on that on breakfast. This is the briefing from bbc news. The latest headlines the first public hearings in Donald Trumps impeachment inquiry begin today. The us president is accused of improperly seeking help from ukraine to boost his chances of re election next year , something he denies. Australia has escaped the worst feared impacts of the bushfires but the threat still remains high as more than 70 uncontained fires continue to burn in queensland and New South Wales the italian city of venice has been hit by severe flooding after the highest tide in more than 50 years. Now its time to look at the stories that are making the headlines in the media across the world. We are receiving live footage from hong kong the clashes between pro democracy testers and police. Marika has said this normally happens during the weekend but now it is happening throughout the week. Protesters have blocked roads and this is the Central Business district you can see here. Lots of line on the subway are not operational today, where 7. 5 Million People try and use this Service Daily to get to and from work and school and university. But many workers are staying home because these protesters a re workers are staying home because these protesters are moving into the middle of the week now, on monday a protester was shot with live ammunition and is still recovering from those injuries as this escalates in hong kong. This is what is happening at the moment. You can see a very heavy Police Presence in the Central Business district. Lets ta ke the Central Business district. Lets take a look at some of the stories the media is focused on today. We start with the telegraph who say uk Prime Minister borisjohnson will promise a Clean Energy Revolution as one of the prizes of brexit. He also said a conservative government would spearhead the drive to tackle climate change. Meanwhile, the mirror leads with a pledge from the labour party to spend £26 billion on the nhs in order to repair the damage they say, following a decade of tory austerity inflicted on the uk health service. On the bbc news website, there is little sign of change in women being under represented in topjobs in business,
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