While in late March consumption of clothing and textiles was still showing promising results (- 0.3 % in value for the first quarter of 2012 in comparison to the first three months in 2011), low profits for April shattered any hopes of 2012 ending up with a positive balance sheet. In April, retailers’ turnover plummeted 15 % in value. In these still troubled economic times, the combination of the particularly rainy weather and the fact that this April had one fewer Saturday took a heavy toll on sales. The first data in for the month of May show results that are indeed less disparaging than in April and slightly lower than May 2011. All in all, consumption for the first four months of this year should prove to be approximately 4 % lower than the first four months of 2011.