[Chrysalis]

Yes in the long term its a problem. One side of it I simply see as natural progression, however the other side of it is if ultimately this is widespread and unemployment has a long upwards trend then there will be less money from consumers spent in shops and they they may lose sales so ultimately profit. But as far as walkers crisps goes it is a food product so will have a degree of resistance to recessions. That is probably one reason for new labour's push on further education as they will have been aware manual unskilled work was nosediving.

My city in terms of industry is a ghost town, dozens and dozens of abandoned factories mainly for clothing as that it was doing decades ago, alot of those now been converted to flats as in student areas or areas at low end of rental market, even retail was been affected in mid 2000s before the recession as the city was getting a rep for having empty shops. We had the lowest female wages in england in 2006, no idea if its still the same.