Bargain-hungry shoppers send sales of non-food items soaring

BA R G A I N- H UN G R Y shoppers bolstered retail takings last month, with non-food sales jumping 40% during the week including Black Friday.

The latest British Retail Consortium-KPMG survey showed like-for-like sales rose 0.6% in November, up from a 0.4% fall in 2015, as the shopping extravaganza on November 25 provided a boost to stores.

Total sales also climbed by 1.3% compared to a 0.7% rise in November last year. Online sales of nonfood products saw its third month of double-digit growth in November, but eased back to 10.9% growth from a 11.8% rise for the same month in 2015.

Like-for-like food sales were flat in the three months to November, while total food sales lifted 1.5%. However, sales of non-food items saw their highest average growth since March, with total sales rising 1.7% in the three months to November.

Shoppers were predicted to go on a £1.97bn spending spree on Black Friday – setting a new record – with more than half spent on the internet.

However, the chaotic scenes witnessed two years ago where brawls broke out over cut-price televisions were not matched this year on the high street.

Instead, just a handful of shoppers waited in line outside many superstores before calmly purchasing cut-price electrical goods.

Separate figures from Barclaycard showed consumer spending rose 5.1% last month.