Lets start here in the uk, because thousands of non essential retail shops across england will be Reopening Today after being closed for almost four months. Pub gardens, indoor gyms and hairdressers are among the businesses that can now welcome customers. The easing of the lockdown will be a relief to many, but what effects has it had . According to the british retail consortium, the three lockdowns have cost non food stores approximately £30 billion in lost sales. However, its not all Bad News. The Accountancy Firm Pwc believes Consumer Confidence is at highest level since 2008, when it began tracking consumer trends. Kyle monk is director of analytics and insights at the british retail consortium. What are your members expecting from Reopening Today . And how have shops prepared for today . And how have shops prepared for toda . ,. , , and how have shops prepared for toda . ,. , and how have shops prepared for toda . ,. ,. , today . Obviously an Important Da For Today . Obviously an
let s start with starbucks, because the world s largest coffee chain has announced a sharp drop in sales for the first quarter. before global lockdowns were put in place, getting a coffee on the way to work used to be a ritual months. between october and december last year, starbucks global sales fell by 5%, which is larger than the 3.5% drop many analysts were predicting. however, one country bucking the trend was china, which is one of starbucks biggest markets. sales their rose by 5% during the first quarter period. joining me now from new york is hitha herzog, who s a retail analyst at h squared research.the most recent estimate for the sector puts the decline in value at 24% over the last year. this % drop in global sales, when hundreds of millions of people have been housebound in national lockdowns. why are sales of coffees not lower? it s a really good question and part of the reason why is because no one is walking into the source. you saw traffic drop into starbucks
abortion access. important it s happened. all those who care about life we still have work to do. former president trump, he met the with house minority leader kevin mccarthy. trump pledged to work with mccarthy on gaining the house majority in 2022. i feel good i knew that i would now. i feel good steve: me too. brian: right. i don t think is he talking directly to us. steve: yeah he is. so good. breen brian did he write this song for rocky 3? ainsley: i wish we could ask him what does this song mean? why do you feel good? brian: we couldn t book him. steve: it is friday, january 29th. that s why we feel good because it is friday, january 29th. kansas day coming to think about it when you grow up in kansas. it is the coldest day of the year so far. right now outside it is 1 degrees in new york city. sit back, relax, pour yourself a big cup of joe and enjoy the show starts now. ainsley: thank you for watching. start about this story. little little people winning
stephen sondheim. tributes pouring in for the man behind some of broadway s biggest smashes. and shake the holiday season into high gear with the return of the famed rockettes. this is nbc nightly news with lester holt. good evening we re going to tell you what we know and what we don t know tonight as a worrisome new covid variant rears its head labeled with the greek letter omicron and classified by the w.h.o. as a variant of concern. today the u.s. announcing restrictions on travel to here from south africa where the variant is spreading experts troubled by the large number of mutations. while there are early indications it could be more transmissible than previous variants, it is not known if it is more deadly and if it can weaken the effectiveness of vaccines uncertainty rattling financial markets today as the u.s. averages 90,000 new covid infections a day. in a moment, some of my conversation with dr. fauci about the omicron variant. but first, gabe gutierrez w
reports. here s what s happening at 2:00 p.m. eastern, 11:00 a.m. pacific time. we re going to begin with the breaking news. the omicron strain of coronavirus fueling new fears of yet another global surge. within just this last hour, germany reporting its first confirmed cases. the uk reporting new cases earlier as well. and today in the u.s., new york declaring a state of emergency. dr. anthony fauci on nbc this morning said he would not be surprised if it was already here in the u.s. i would not be surprised if it is. we have not detected it yet, but when you have a virus that is showing this degree of transmissibility and you re already having travel-related cases that they ve noted in israel and belgium and in other places, when you have a virus like this, it almost invariably is ultimately going to go, essentially, all over. scientists now rushing to determine how effective current vaccines are against omicron as countries around the world are racing to implement tr