Their importance as employers and the contribution they make to the Exchequer is without parallel. 

Small shopkeepers and environmentalists may disagree but the millions who vote with their feet every week cross the thresholds of the retail chains because they find them convenient, competitive in price, and for the most part entertaining places to visit.

With the banking sector requiring taxpayer bailouts, retailing has become synonymous with business expertise – albeit one that is taking its share of knocks in the recession.

Its importance is reflected in the readiness of Gordon Brown to blow billions of pounds on a modest VAT cut in the vain hope it might revive the UK’s economic prospects.

Retailers cannot be blamed for being good at what they do but the ascent of their sector has shifted the balance of commerce from export-driven industry to import-led consumerism.

We have become the end destination for the products we have lost the will to build for ourselves – and I’m not certain why this should be.
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