TILL BELLS JINGLE IN FESTIVE SPREE

HOPES are high that a bumper Christmas shopping season can boost confidence and bottom lines for Townsville retailers.

If early indications are anything to go by, retailers believe it could be a strong month of sales ahead.

But business leaders have urged shoppers to spend locally to ensure the city’s hard- earned cash benefits their local economy. CastleTown Shoppingworld centre manager Ben Verning said he expected a busy trading period from this weekend.

“There’s plenty of visitors and people are spending but we expect trade to significantly increase from this weekend all the way to Christmas Eve,” he said.

“The pre and post- Christmas trade was crucial to a retailer’s longevity. This time of year traders are probably taking 14 to 16 per cent of their annual gross profit, and probably even higher for the small retailers, and the giftware focused operations.” Mr Verning said CastleTown had many independent operators and had encouraged gift- focused pop- up stores.

Stockland Townsville centre manager Malcolm Miller said they had experienced strong customer traffic since late November.

“We’ve had over 300,000 shoppers visiting Stockland Townsville since late November and are expecting the centre to remain busy all the way up until Christmas Eve,” he said.

Townsville Chamber of Commerce president Debbie Rains said it seemed there had been an increase in retail spending.

“We are pushing the buy local concept,” she said.

“Every dollar spent locally goes around 13 times.”

National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb said the Christmas and Boxing Day sales were a vitally important time for retailers.

“This is the time that many retailers employ additional casual staff, so they rely on good sales through late November and December to ensure they can offer extra hours to students and other parttime or casual staff,” he said.

“Retail business can have its peaks and troughs throughout the year. Many retailers rely on a strong sales period over summer to help them keep their doors open and their staff employed throughout the year.

“In Townsville, we know that the influx of tourists and visitors in the lead- up to Christmas also helps to put a little extra cash into retailers’ stockings, which again helps with creating local jobs and sustaining them throughout the year.”