Shoppers hit the high street during strike

Public sector strikes are costly to the economy, however this week's strike saw a surge of shippers hit the high street, as 2m sector workers enjoyed a day off. The fillip to trade was welcomed as the equivalent of “an extra Saturday” by retailers,

who reported full car parks and large crowds, according to the Financial Times.

Experian, the consumer behaviour research house, quantified the year-on-year increase on Thursday, stating it had recorded a 38 per cent rise in footfall based on samples taken at more than 50 per cent of UK shopping centres compared with the same Wednesday last year.

However, retail analysts caution that spending has simply been sucked forward from the coming weekend – traditionally one of the biggest Christmas shopping periods, as it is the first opportunity shoppers have to spend December’s pay packet.

“To put the 38 per cent rise into context, on the same day a year ago, shopper numbers were down 12 per cent because of heavy snows.”

At the Bluewater shopping centre in Kent, customer numbers were 20 per cent higher than expected for a typical Wednesday in November. “It was a really good day for family shopping, with a lot more mums and kids in particular,” said David Wilkinson, head of marketing at Bluewater.

Westfield Stratford City in east London experienced “its busiest week” since opening in September, while the Metrocentre in Gateshead had its busiest day so far this year. Birmingham’s Bullring recorded a 32 per cent increase in shoppers.

“I don’t think that the fact that people can go to Bluewater instead of school will provide any lasting boost to the economy,” said Tony Shiret, retail analyst at RBS. “Browsing in the mall is a cheap day out. But when retailers get round to reporting trading figures, I think we’ll find that spending won’t be up quite so sharply.”

The Treasury estimated earlier that Wednesday’s strike would cost the economy £500m in lost productivity.

Image: Nicole Scherzinger attends a photocall for the grand opening of Westfield Stratford