Bargain hunters hit the stores in thousands on Boxing Day
Tuesday, 27 December 2011 10:52
Boxing Day saw plenty of activity on the high street as consumers raced to snap up the nest bargains.
Retailers and shopping centres around the country reported healthy footfall with some people queuing hours before the shops opened.
Traders in London’s West End estimated that they took £15 million in sales in just three hours despite disruption to some underground services due to a tube strike.
Many retailers had to pay their rent for the next quarter on Christmas Day and have been discounting for weeks as the January sales began early for many stores this year in a desperate bid to entice customers into parting with their money.
Online sales have also increased dramatically, heaping more pressure onto retailers operating on the high street or in traditional stores. Debenhams reported a 75 per cent increase in online traffic on Christmas Day and John Lewis said that it had received 1.5 million visits to its website on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Managers of shopping centres in London, including Brent Cross and Westfield Stratford City and Westfield shopping centre in West London reported busy trading and said shoppers had not been put off by the tube strike. They estimated that 125,000 people had visited both Westfield centres on Boxing Day.
Across the UK shopping centres in Liverpool. Birmingham, Bristol, Cardiff and Glasgow all reported busy Boxing Day trading.
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