Christmas bargain hunters give shops a welcome boost

Despite a reported drop in footfall between August and October of almost 10% in Scotland from last year, several retailers said they were now matching last year’s figures.

Outlets also claimed departments such as toys, electronics and beauty were outperforming last year.

David Pierotti, centre director at Glasgow’s Silverburn shopping centre, estimated 300,000 shoppers visited the mall at the weekend and claimed it was “holding its own” in Christmas trading.

He said: “There’s been a lot of activity at the centre over the past few weeks as retailers have been offering strong discounts early in the season and this has been drawing the crowds.

“Savvy shoppers are coming to take advantage of the offers and will come one week to buy champagne, for example, and then hats and scarfs the next week because they know there are deals on.

“We’re also benefiting from last year’s snow because people had there fingers burnt with delivery delays. Shoppers are not taking the risk this year and are visiting stores for themselves.”

Kim Lowe, managing director of John Lewis Glasgow and chairwoman of Glasgow’s Style Mile steering group, said she was confident about Christmas trading.

She said: “The perception is that it’s all doom and gloom and that’s not true.

“The Christmas areas have been doing really well, beating sales last year in things like beauty, Christmas trees and decorations. Electronics and toys have been going mad.

“There’s no doubt it’s tough, but Glasgow has actually been quite buoyant overall and the weekend has definitely marked the start of Christmas shopping.”

Both Edinburgh’s Ocean Terminal and Glasgow’s Braehead shopping centres claimed they were expecting even more customers than last year thanks to new outlets and entertainment at the malls.

Braehead general manager Peter Beagley said: “People are really getting into their stride for Christmas shopping. We expect to be extremely busy and have made sure there are extra staff on duty.”

Andy Neal, chief executive of Essential Edinburgh, claimed the capital had slightly more customers than the rest of Scotland between August and October, but were still around 8% down on last year.

However, he added that despite this, sales for those months were up 0.4%.

Mr Neal said: “Certainly, the discussions I’ve been having with traders are that things are still quite tough

“However, the past weekend was an important one. The Christmas lights went on on Thursday and most people were paid at the end of last week, so the Christmas shopping really began.”

Lucy Bird, chief executive of Marketing Edinburgh, added: “Edinburgh retailers are gearing up for one of the busiest shopping weeks in the calendar as people get into the Christmas spirit and hit the city to carry out their festive shopping.

“There’s a real extra-special buzz about the city and it’s encouraging to see so many people spending.”

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) last week revealed the near 10% drop in customers on the high street between August and October. Sales in Scotland were also slightly down on the previous year, compared to the UK as a whole, which saw a slight increase.

The downturn was blamed on families being forced to tighten their belts in the light of job cuts, wage freezes and rising household bills, particularly for fuel.

Richard Dodd, of the SRC, said: “What we’ll see this Christmas is that sales will probably end up somewhere close to where they were last year and for Scotland possibly either slightly up or down.

“Shopper numbers are difficult to predict but I think we may well see numbers down on a year ago because people are short of money.

“Retailers were hoping the weekend would provide a strong indication that the Christmas shopping scene has finally kicked off.

“There are now three full weekends to go until Christmas and they will ultimately be looking for a boost to their sales.”