Shopping rush unwraps 'fantastic' Christmas for UK retailers
Retailers in the UK hailed a “fantastic” last-minute Christmas shopping rush tonight amid predictions of the day’s sales topping the £1bn (€1.41bn) mark.
Tom Nathan, head of London’s Brent Cross Shopping Centre, said: “It’s been fantastic. It has been really busy.
“It started with food shoppers coming in at 8am and food shopping has been busy all day.
“Having started fairly briskly, it then continued throughout the day.
“It was relatively quiet but then it became busier and busier this afternoon.”
Speaking at around 5.30pm he added: “It is still very busy. I think people tend to go toward the more expensive stuff at this time.
“It’s panic buying … in jewellery, chocolate, media and electrical.”
Mr Nathan said he could see three different jewellery shops busy with men buying gifts for their partners.
“There is no question, people this year have left some of their Christmas shopping till late,” he said.
Experts said more than £1 billion could be spent by last minute present-buyers by the end of today, making it potentially the biggest shopping day of the year.
The number of people out shopping on Thursday was 32% higher than it was on the same day Thursday last week and 21% higher than on Tuesday this week.
Overall numbers in the past week were 2% up on the same period last year.
Earlier, Kate Ison, from the British Retail Consortium, said: “The final weekend before Christmas was quite a disappointment for a lot of retailers, but it is expected to be manic today.
“Sales could exceed £1 billion and today could be the biggest shopping day of the year, although it may not be enough for some retailers to compensate for such a poor November.”
David Smyth, from retail analysts FootFall, who measure shopper numbers across the UK, said: “It appears that people worked the first three days of the week, and started their Christmas vacation on Thursday with a final shopping spree before travelling to Christmas destinations.
“In 2003, in comparison, many people took the first three days of the Christmas week off, and we saw a strong shopping day on Monday December 22, with people starting their Christmas travelling the following day.
“Although shopper volumes are evident, final retail trading figures will reveal the winners and losers over the Christmas period as we see whether the tactical, targeted discounting and sales have adversely affected margins.”
Motoring groups said town centres were packed with people doing their last minute shopping today.
Aylesbury, Derby and Hereford were just three areas where traffic was backed up.
Alan Jones, head of marketing at Kent’s Bluewater Shopping Centre, said: “Generally, it has been busy and it has been a lot busier than previous years.”
He said it was normal to see peaks during the seasonal period but retailers enjoyed a strong run-in to Christmas, he said.
He added: “People are shopping until the last minute. Overall, it has been a good trading period.”
Supermarket Waitrose said it had experienced record breaking trade in weekly sales figures.
Steven Esom, managing director of Waitrose, said: “Waitrose has really delivered in the face of a great surge.
“We have managed to meet demand, getting food to the right place, at the right time, in the right quantity.”
