Daily Mirror (Northern Ireland)
£8M-A-MINUTE SPENT IN RECORD SALES DAY
SALES shoppers blew £8million a minute in a record-breaking Boxing Day spending spree.
Thousands of diehard bargain hunters began queuing in freezing conditions after midnight on Christmas Day, standing outside Next stores before doors opened at 6am.
Lines snaked around the block as 1,000 waited outside Birmingham’s Bullring store to get their hands on half-price clothes for the whole family.
Around £4.5billion was splurged in stores and online in total – up from £4.03bn on Boxing Day last year, said the Centre for Retail Research.
A spokesman said: “They’re spending at a rate of £8.26million a minute.”
At Selfridges in Oxford Street, designer
BIRMINGHAM
label fans began queuing from 2.30am as handbags, dresses and watches were slashed by up to 50%.
Among the deals snapped up were an Alexander Mcqueen handbag down from £1,390 to £695, a Stella Mccartney dress at £395, from £780 and a Longchamp
NORTH TYNESIDE
tote for £40 instead of £70. The store took £4million within the first three hours of opening at 9am.
Shopping centres were bursting a as half the adult population joined the annual bargains bonanza. From Cardiff ’s St David’s centre to the Silverlink Retail Park, North Tyneside and Manchester’s Trafford Centre, hundreds of thousands were elbow to elbow.
Online stores were also doing a roaring trade as armchair shoppers blew more than £1billion, up 6% on last year.
More than half a million people had visited Currys PC World’s website between 10-11am, two thirds shopping or browsing on their smartphones.
Today is also tipped to be busy. CRR director Professor Joshua Bamfield said: “It will be a whopper compared to average spend on a Wednesday.
“Footfall will be high and homewares and small electronics will sell well.”
Armed police were called after a panic over false gunshot reports in London’s Oxford St and a disturbance at Westfield shopping centre, East London.