But as one of the BRC authors, he also has the knowledge to solve them.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said like-for-like retail sales were up 2.7% on the previous year.
BBC: UK retail sales grew at fastest rate for years in February
The total value of sales in June rose 1.5% versus a year ago, the BRC said.
The BRC data comes after official figures revealed that UK retail sales fell last month.
"The feel good factor from the Olympics failed to inspire spending, " the BRC said.
The BRC said these marked the highest like-for-like sales increases on a quarterly basis since December 2009.
In terms of fashion, the autumn-winter ranges in womenswear did not attract many shoppers, the BRC said.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said Christmas spending in shops this year was "acceptable but not exceptional".
The BRC says consumer spending is being hit hard by higher inflation, job losses and low wage growth.
The number of shoppers on UK High Streets fell last month, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
"There's no evidence here of any Olympic boost to retail sales overall, " said BRC director general Stephen Robertson.
Richard Dodd, from the British Retail Consortium (BRC), said there were a "good number of sensible ideas" in the report.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said its figures showed that August had the slowest sales growth they had seen all year.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said the number of people visiting shops last month was 5.2% lower than a year ago.
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said 573 shops closed, even before the recent big-name failures of HMV, Jessops, Comet and Blockbuster.
In particular, online shopping grew 4.8% in August, the lowest increase since the BRC started collecting the data in October 2008.
Retail sales fell 0.4% on a like-for-like basis from the same month last year, according to the British Retail Consortium (BRC).
Snow and low temperatures caused a 3.8% drop in shopper numbers compared with March last year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.
The BRC says 95% of its members' products have been checked, including all minced beef lines used by the UK's largest supermarkets.
Meanwhile, new tests conducted on beef retail products revealed no new cases of horsemeat adulteration, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) has said.
According to the British Retail Consortium (BRC), 11.2 per cent of all shops on high streets and in shopping centres are vacant.
FORBES: The Least Surprising Economic Statistic of Our Times
"Underlying conditions are still tough, " said the BRC's director general, Stephen Robertson.
The BRC data follows a number of high profile High Street casualties.
The BRC figures contrasted with a recent CBI survey which reported that food stores suffered their worst performance for five years in February.
BBC: UK retail sales grew at fastest rate for years in February
The BRC report comes after official figures released last week showed that retail sales grew only slightly in July, up 0.2% from June.
Snow and low temperatures caused a 3.8% drop in footfall in Scottish shops compared to March last year, the British Retail Consortium (BRC) said.
"It is very clear that overall the Olympics did not deliver any benefits to UK retailers in August, " said Richard Dodd from the BRC.
But the BRC questioned the report's link between promotions and food waste, highlighting a UK government survey that showed buy-one-get-one-free offers were becoming rarer.
The official series should be the more reliable because it is more comprehensive than the BRC's, which mainly picks up sales by large retailers.
The BRC has told the Treasury that legislation would put a burden on business because of the need to train staff to charge for the bags.
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