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Boxing Day sales: bargain hunters out in force across UK Boxing Day sales: bargain hunters queue up early across UK
(about 3 hours later)
The Christmas shopping marathon has continued in earnest with thousands of Britons queuing from the early hours to get their hands on Boxing Day bargains. Millions of Britons have enjoyed a last hurrah in the Boxing Day sales with determined shoppers camping out in the early hours to secure the best bargains although crowds were smaller than in previous years.
More than 1,000 people were waiting outside Next in Birmingham’s Bullring shopping centre before its 6am opening, with some eager shoppers standing sentinel from 12.30am. Shoppers started queuing outside branches of high street chain Next at 12.30am while on Oxford Street, in London a crowd started forming outside Selfridges at 2.30am. However, retail experts said that overall shopper numbers were down on 2016.
Unlike most high street rivals, Next does not cut its prices before Christmas and the big crowds outside its branches, including 1,000 at the Silverburn centre in Glasgow and 500 at Highcross Leicester, show Britons think its sale, when its slashes clothing and homewares prices by two-thirds, is still worth getting out of bed for. The power of the Boxing Day sales has been diminished in recent years due to a combination of internet discount extravaganzas such as November’s Black Friday and the fact that major stores such as Marks & Spencer and John Lewis start their sales online on Christmas Eve. But even if crowds were thinner, shopping centre owners reported brisk trade as those who did venture out spent more.
Although many high street stores started their sales online at the end of last week, Boxing Day remains one of the biggest shopping days of the year as Britons hit the shops to spend gift cards and money they have received for Christmas. “People like to come sale shopping because it is the thrill of the kill,” said Tom Nathan, general manager at Brent Cross, one of London’s biggest shopping centres. “Some chains have also held back putting discounted items online which has forced people out from behind their computers.”
Shoppers were out in force on Boxing Day against a backdrop of rising prices, with around one in three Britons expected to visit the festive sales, up from 23% last year, according to Barclaycard. The poll found after months of “feeling the squeeze” many consumers were looking forward to the sales to make their budgets go further. Nathan said there was was also an element of people trading up to branded products: “Popular items are full-length boots, cashmere coats and knitwear. People have waited for expensive items that are heavily discounted. People are also buying more cleverly. In perfumery Boots and Fenwicks have gift items that are 30% off and people are stocking up for later in the year.”
“Last year, Black Friday overshadowed Boxing Day sales as many retailers struggled to maintain consumer interest in what has become a month-long discounting event,” said Paul Lockstone, managing director at Barclaycard. “This year, however, value-seeking consumers appear to be more eager to buy cut-price items across both sales periods as they try to combat rising prices.” In London, one Selfridges shopper, Matthew O’Clery, a 19-year-old student from Perth, Scotland, who braved the crowds in London’s West End described the store as “an absolute zoo” as sharp-elbowed shoppers hunted down discounted Alexander McQueen handbags and half-price Stella McCartney dresses.
Shopping centre group Hammerson, which owns the Bullring and London’s Brent Cross, said it was expecting big crowds at its centres but that shoppers were trading up, opting to buy fewer, higher priced goods. It predicted that jewellery, cashmere jumpers, retro toys and gadgets would be on people’s shopping lists. Selfridges’ tills banked £4m in the first three hours of its sale with the retailer reporting that Boxing Day would be its biggest trading day of the year after 120,000 shoppers trekked to the London store.
“The shift towards indulgent and higher priced presents in favour of volume gifting means we anticipate consumers to continue to ‘trade up’ on brands and key purchases during the sales,” said Mark Bourgeois, Hammerson’s managing director for the UK & Ireland. Leaving Brent Cross, Arnold Ilunga, 26, a lorry driver from Stanmore, north-west London, said he had not meant to buy anything on the shopping trip but by lunchtime was holding more than 10 Zara bags, containing two coats and shirts and jumpers for his three children.
Retail experts expect stores in London’s West End to ring up a £52m sales bonanza on Boxing Day as both local shoppers and tourists flock to high street and luxury stores on Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street. That figure is 4% higher than last year with the New West End Company predicting tills will rake in £190m over the Boxing Day week buoyed by high-spending tourists. “My wife dragged me out,” said Ilunga. “I ended up getting more than I imagined. Even with the long wait I prefer going to shops rather than buying online because if the item doesn’t fit it’s a pain to return online stuff.”
Security guards were deployed to keep the crowd under control outside Selfridges as bargain hunters queued for discounts on high-end brands such as Gucci, Prada, Jimmy Choo and Burberry. In the run up to Christmas fewer people visited the shops to buy their gifts and that trend continued on Boxing Day. By lunchtime total shopper numbers were 4% down on last year, according to research group Springboard which tracks visits to shopping centres and high streets.
Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of New West End Company, said international tourists were making a beeline for London due to the weakness in sterling. “The Boxing Day sales have become a tradition for domestic customers but we also predict a high number of international visitors will take advantage of currency fluctuations and low-cost flights to come to the West End,” he said. “What we have seen in the last couple of years is a structural shift in the Christmas trading period,” said Springboard analyst Diane Wehrle. She said the Black Friday sales had changed the way people shop because retailers started discounting in November.
Of the predicted £190m spend in the West End this week, £62m will come from high-rolling international visitors, who on average spend more than £1,000 each. The Chinese are among the highest spenders of all with Global Blue, the shopping tax refund company, predicting that they will be responsible for a fifth of all non-EU spending in the capital’s main shopping district this week. Unlike most high street rivals, Next does not cut its prices before Christmas and the 1,000-strong crowds outside its branches in Birmingham and Silverburn, Glasgow, indicated the enduring appeal of big discounts, even in an age of nonstop discounting. The same is true for stores such as Zara.
In nearby Knightsbridge thousands of shoppers also made their annual pilgrimage to Harrods as the luxury department store slashed the price of designer clothing and handbags by up to 50% in its winter sale. Harrods’ managing director, Michael Ward, said the store had had a good Christmas with sales higher than a year ago as shoppers sought out special gifts they could not find on the high street. Nathan said visitor numbers had held up at Brent Cross. “It looks as if we were ahead of last year [footfall] and we are very busy today with trading somewhere around last year’s figure,” he said. “But it’s not just footfall but the level of spend. Retailers are seeing the average take per basket going up because people are busier and have reduced the number of shopping trips. So when they do come they spend more.”
“If you have got beautiful products people will seek it out,” said Ward. “If you walk down the high street you will see 20 black dresses and they’ll be the same. If you come to Harrods you will find 20 black dresses and each one will be exquisite in a different way.” Analysts are expecting consumers to cut back in the new year as inflation, linked to the weakness of sterling, erodes spending power and a wobbling housing market chips away at consumer confidence. Britons are also absorbing the impact of the first Bank of England base rate rise in over a decade on their finances.
Independent retail analyst Richard Hyman, said consumer confidence was paper thin: “There’s massive uncertainty. You’ve got inflation coming through, you’ve got earnings lagging to where they were years ago. This makes life difficult. Why would people be optimistic?”
But the upmarket stores in London’s West End are insulated from the country’s wider economic woes as high-spending tourists flocked to Oxford Street, Bond Street and Regent Street. The New West End Company predicted that more than £50m would be spent there on Boxing Day alone, up 4% on 2016.
“The Boxing Day sales have become a tradition for domestic customers but we also predict a high number of international visitors will take advantage of currency fluctuations and low-cost flights to come to the West End,” said Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of New West End Company, who predicted West End stores would rake in £190m over the Boxing Day week.
In Selfridges, Yang Cui is admiring an expensive haul that includes make-up, a suit, handkerchiefs and a scarf. “I am from China and there is high taxes there on goods, that’s why people buy clothes and handbags here,”he said.
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