Well it's been a while since my last blog, but Christmas is such a manic time!.

We are now into 2009 and if you listen to news reports it is going to be a tough year.

We have seen the collapse of several major retail chains at the end of 2008 and it begs the question why, and what can we learn from their demise.

This week bed retailer Sleep Depot and toy shop Toyzone became the latest high street victims of the downturn and Allders department stores, boasting 45 branches, with a flagship on Oxford Street, and a turnover last year of more than 600 million is to go into receivership. Waterford Wedgewood is going into administration also Woolworths highly publicised collapse, then theres DFS, Adams childrens clothing, 111 stores closed, another 160 hanging by a thread, Manchester retailer Passion for Perfume has gone into administration with the loss of 194 jobs. Officers Club, Whittard of Chelsea had 130 stores but collapsed, there are several more failed and apparently perhaps another 12 could fail in the not too distant future, scary.

America have it worse than us,

General Motors, the largest car maker in the US, which celebrated its 100th anniversary this year, said it will be bankrupt within months unless it gets government money to tide it over during the biggest economic crisis since the Great Depression of the 1930s.

The company has called off merger talks with its smaller rival Chrysler in order to concentrate on more urgent internal cost-cutting and on lobbying for a rescue from the US government.

With sales slumping across the world, GM's chief executive, Rick Wagoner, said it had burnt through $6.9bn (£4.4bn)! in the three months to the end of September and had drawn on the last of its credit lines from its banks. With just $16.2bn left in the bank, and about $12bn of that needed as a cushion to fund its day-to-day operations, a day of reckoning is now within sight.

Several banks have failed , and their mortgage market basically collapsed.

So what can we do to avoid the same fate?.

Tackle the basics, cut costs, reduce overheads, maximise sales and avoid borrowing. Easily said, harder to do. It is likely as sales drop you will be tempted to borrow to survive. This is a rocky road, be realistic, dont throw good money after bad. The strong will survive, it is likely some will fail.

It is now time Lymm came together and put up a united front, a stronger Lymm will attract more shoppers, hopefully we will have somewhere for them to park, but we need additional must have retail outlets. How about some diversity, if your struggling why not try something different, something people need on a daily basis that we dont have in Lymm at the moment. I know many of you wont want to do that, it's just a thought, surely thats better than going bust with massive debts.

Good luck everyone, stay strong and think about working together.