Panic on the high street! Scots splurge £6k a second in f inal rush

CHRISTMAS pudding is a family favourite but don’t feed it to your pet – seven ingredients, including dairy, chocolate and alcohol, can poison dogs.

A THIRD of people would be happy with no presents under the tree from their loved one (or so they say), according to a poll of 500 people across the UK.

SCOTS will be toasting Christmas with vodka, which has been revealed as the nation’s favourite festive tipple, topping whisky in a recent poll.

SCOTS shoppers spent more than £200 million on the high street yesterday – more than £6,000 a second – during a rush for last-minute gifts.

As the final Saturday before Christmas became the busiest shopping day of the year, some 850,000 people thronged stores looking for sale bargains.

House of Fraser had up to 50 per cent off designer labels such as Barbour, Ralph Lauren and Calvin Klein, while Smyths and Hamleys were offering discounts on popular toys.

Experts said yesterday’s shoppers divided broadly into two camps – the panic buyers and the more leisurely people putting the finishing touches to their festive purchases.

Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, said: ‘Yesterday was a panic as there were people shopping for the first time, as well as organised shoppers who want to buy their last gifts and get their feet up.

‘People are spending again after a quiet start to December after Black Friday, with the level of promotions encouraging spending.’

Sales of food, alcohol and gifts spiked this month, with

£82 billion estimated to have been spent across the UK.

The Scottish Retail Consortium (SRC) estimated that Scots spent £250 million overall yesterday – including around £200 million on the high street and £50 million online.

SRC director David Lonsdale said: ‘December alone accounts for almost an eighth of all retail spending. It has been a difficult year for many retailers, who have been pinning their hopes on shoppers coming out in force for what is the most important shopping weekend of the year.’

Yesterday, intu Braehead Shopping Centre, near

Glasgow, had an estimated 120,000 customers, with 100,000 at Glasgow’s Silverburn and 90,000 at Fort Kinnaird in Edinburgh.

Aberdeen’s Union Square had around 70,000 shoppers, with 50,000 at Dundee’s Overgate. Jason Gordon, at financial firm Deloitte, said its Christmas survey found one in ten UK customers intended to buy gifts in the week before the big day.

He said: ‘Average discounts are already around 45.5 per cent but are expected to steadily reach 50 per cent by Christmas Eve.’

David Lyon, marketing manager at intu Braehead, said: ‘Christmas shoppers were waiting for our doors to open at 9am yesterday and very quickly there were queues at our customer services desk to buy gift cards.’

He said other popular gift items were jewellery and perfume, with Nintendo Switch games consoles flying off the shelves along with LOL dolls.

And shoppers need not worry about the weather getting in the way of their last-minute shopping – forecasters have ruled out a white Christmas, with warm temperatures meaning no snow for most of the country. The Met Office’s Marco Petagna said: ‘Given the quiet spell of weather ahead, snow does not look at all likely.

‘As long as people wrap up on Christmas Day, things are going to feel quite pleasant.’

Temperatures on Christmas Day could touch 6C or 7C (42F44F), which is around average for this time of year.

ScotRail passengers have been reminded there will be no services on Christmas Day and the last trains on Christmas

Eve will be leaving earlier than normal. Services will run as normal up to 8pm, but with no trains between Edinburgh Haymarket and London on December 27, 28 and January 1 amid engineering work.