Shoppers brave cold and hit the high street

Shoppers braved the cold weather and snow, as bargain hunters hit the high street for Christmas bargain. Following dire warnings that families would be cutting spending ahead of a frugal Christmas, shops slashed prices by up

to 65 per cent in the hope of getting the tills ringing,reported the Daily Mail.

And it worked as a supposedly sedate quiet weekend saw stampedes on Saturday and Sunday, with High Streets and major shopping centres across the country bursting at the seams.

Gordon McKinnon, director of operations at Manchester's Trafford Centre, said the slight improvement in the weather had helped businesses, with the retail complex experiencing the high footfall expected in the lead up to Christmas.

The arrival of the cold weather had impacted on high street sales in the final week of November, with gifts and health and beauty purchases were also below par, according to the BDO High Street Sales Tracker.

The arrival of the cold weather led to the usual seasonal spike in purchases of winter clothes, with fashion sales rising by 2.8 per cent during November, although the growth was down on the figure seen for the same month of 2009.

The weather also hit online sales, as people worried that their order risked getting lost during the snow chaos, or being caught up in a backlog of deliveries.

But retailers were hope sales would bounce back during early December as people rush to the shops once the snow has been cleared. and this weekend's business looks to have proved them right.

Bluewater, the out-of-town centre in Greenhithe, Kent, expected numbers to top 150,000 by the end of Saturday - similar to the same same day last year - as people took advantage of the thaw to begin their Christmas shopping.

It had put a team of 160 to work clearing around 75,000-tons of snow during the week to make sure Bluewater’s 13,000 free parking spaces were available, and the effort was worth it over the weekend.

Oxford Street was shoulder to shoulder throughout the weekend as the bargain-hunters hit town, and the scene was much the same in the Union Square shopping centre in Aberdeen, said the Daily Mail.

Image: Oxford Street
Source: Daily Mail©