UNITED KINGDOM / AGILITYPR.NEWS / October 29, 2026 / Black Friday lands on 27 November, five weeks from now, leaving little time for retailers and warehouses to adapt to increasingly selective shoppers grappling with the higher cost of living, Pallet Truck Shop has warned.

KPMG’s latest retail figures with the British Retail Consortium showed total sales up just 1.3% in September, with online non-food sales up 0.7%. Even so, 38.3% of non-food purchases are now made online, up from 37.9% a year earlier - and the BRC says households are cautious ahead of expected rises in bills and taxes.

Pallet Truck Shop’s view is that selective shoppers make for spikier trading. People watching their spending tend to hold off until there’s a reason to buy, and Black Friday is the biggest reason of the year.

For smaller online retailers, that can mean a quiet stretch followed by a surge, with no real way of knowing how big until it lands. Once an order’s placed, it still must be picked, packed and out of the door quickly, which puts the pressure on the warehouse floor rather than the website.

Phil Chesworth, Managing Director at Pallet Truck Shop, said, “Spare capacity is the thing people forget. A fleet that copes fine on a normal Tuesday has nothing in hand when volumes double. If you’ve got four electric pallet trucks, stackers or table trucks and one’s off the floor with a fault, that’s a quarter of your capacity gone in the busiest week of the year - and you can’t just borrow one.

“Charging is the other one. If every truck comes off charge at the same time, they all go flat at the same time. A simple rota, who charges what and when, so there are always a few ready, costs nothing and saves an awful lot of faffing about. Check the maker’s guidance for your battery type, though, because they don’t all like the same treatment.

“And think about who’s using the trucks, too. If extra hands are coming in for the week, they’ll be sharing the same ones, and a spare or two stops people queueing for the one that works. With just one month to go until the festive shopping season moves into high gear, I’d urge all businesses to prioritise maintenance checks and ensure their vital material handling equipment is in good working order.”

To find out more about Pallet Truck Shop, visit: www.pallettruckshop.co.uk.