Retail Sales Survey Q1 2013 - What doing away with employees has done for me

So it is that time once more when I report the statistics to the States Statistician and it has come as something  of a shock this quarter, sales are up 130% on last year.

And for those of you statistically minded that refers to just sales in the Central Market Store, excluding repairs and other services (which were down 17%) and does not include internet sales (which were up 50%).

So what does these numbers say? Well with so much of Jersey's jewellery having been scrapped in the past five years (it is well over 5,000 kilos of 9ct gold which has been scrapped and that is just in local jewellers, some people prefer to get ripped off by the UK companies who come over but such is their right) there simply is not so much being repaired. It is simply not wise to scrap your gold unless you have something to spend the money on, gold is going up in value and money is going down, but that does not mean that no gold gets scrapped.

Gold jewellery is now of course as expensive as it should be; it is a major purchase but fortunately it is one which will have a prolonged value; unlike electronics which within five years will be valueless.

Gold faced another assault with a naked short by two banks which amounted to 112% of global gold production sold on the market within a 24 hour period; big banks desperate to clear their short position forcing the price down by overwhelming the market which has led to a spike in demand for physical gold which sees most worldwide dealers out of stock of physical metal.

Once these big banks clear their short position and go long then we can expect to see gold go parabolic and prices of $5,000 do not seem unreasonable.

There is a lot of people in Jersey still with a lot of increasingly worthless paper money looking to purchase things which are going to hold their value...

The future is bright, the future is golden.

So what has actually changed in the past 12 months well only two things... the shop has been redecorated oh and of course I no longer have any employees.

The difference can only be that self-employed people are more focussed, motivated and deliver better results. Employment is an outdated concept which does deliver what is intended, I am never going back.