Big surge today... it’s panic Thursday!
DESPERATE Christmas shoppers will surge to stores on Panic Thursday today.
Numbers are expected to shoot up by 60% on the recent daily average.
Buyers will abandon online purchases and flood the shops in a frantic bid to complete their gift list.
Anything ordered today has a good chance of not arriving by standard post until after Christmas.
But today will not be the worst stampede, according to global retail intelligence specialist, ShopperTrak.
Tomorrow will still be a frenzied 37% above average, but the main crush will be on Super Saturday when the majority of people have the day off work and face the last weekend to wrap up their needs.
It will see thousands more flood the shop with a 63% increase on the daily norm.
Due to Sunday trading, shopper traffic on Christmas Eve will not match that, but footfall will also see a 35% spike.
Steve Richardson, of ShopperTrak, said: “With fears that online orders will not reach consumers before Christmas Day, shoppers will take to the High Street to finish off their festive gift buying in stores.
“The High Street will see a 60% increase in footfall on Panic Thursday.
“But some retailers, such as Next, are offering to fulfil click-and-collect deliveries in time for Christmas for orders placed as late as 9pm on December 23.”
Despite the tradition of Boxing Day sales, the numbers will drop the day after Christmas – being only 6% above recent days, but busier than the rest of the year. ALMOST half of Brits – 44% – are plotting quiet Christmas nookie so they are not overheard by visiting relatives. The best positions for hushed bedroom sessions are missionary, spooning and hand-over-mouth, a survey by ONE Condoms revealed. A spokeswoman said: “Sex against a surface such as furniture will only increase noise.”