Flick through 30 or so trading updates during the past two weeks and a curious picture of Britain's typical consumer emerges. It is someone who on New Year's Eve will probably have stayed in and played on Nintendo Wii, rather than going on a big night out. Dinner may have been a Pepperoni Passion take-out from Domino's Pizza, washed down with lager from J Sainsbury.

A raft of dire trading updates from consumer facing companies - Marks and & Spencer in retail, Restaurant Group (which owns chains such as Garfunkels) in leisure, Persimmon in homebuilding and EasyJet in travel - shows the consumer spree ended before the new year started.