Christmas trading: an expected shopper "Super Saturday" didn't happen

Springboard’s weekly footfall shows the last weekend before Christmas, dubbed the shopper’s “Super Saturday”, didn’t happen.

Footfall increased 7.2 percent from the week before but this uplift was not enough to drive an annual rise, which recorded a year on year decline in footfall of -7.2 percent.

High streets and shopping centres bore the brunt of the year on year decline, with drops in footfall of -8 percent and -7.2 percent whilst in retail parks the drop was a little more modest at -5.5 percent.

The annual drop in footfall last week was seen across the board geographically, with every area recording a drop in footfall from last year that was greater than -5 percent, and in six areas the annual drop was in excess of -8 percent.

Footfall worsened as the week progressed, with an average decline of -9.3 percent between Thursday and Saturday versus -5.2 percent between Sunday and Wednesday.

“Super Saturday” did not materialise, with an annual decline in footfall on that one day of -7.6 percent and an increase over the week of just +2.3 percent.

Image: Oxford Street via New West End Company