Bag a bargain on Stephen’s Day
Retailers pin hopes on tech and fashion discounts
BARGAIN hunters around the country will hope to compensate for whatever Santa forgot to bring last night as January sales kick into gear today.
And while there are plenty of eye-catching discounts on offer, it remains to be seen just how thronged shopping streets will be, with one expert telling the Irish Mail on Sunday that a ‘perfect storm’ of circumstances could result in an unusually quiet Saint Stephen’s Day for in-store retail.
Along with the continued evolution of online shopping and the desire to avoid crowded spaces with the Omicron variant raging, Eddie Shanahan – a leading retail, fashion and craft consultant – cites
‘We’ll pay a little more to support local makers’
a number of changing lifestyle patterns that could play into a lower turnout in shops today.
‘First of all, consumers have been reappraising what they spend their money on,’ he told the MoS. ‘They’re looking for quality and not just price. So price is no longer the key arbiter, I would suggest, in winter sales.
‘It’s, “Am I getting real value?” And it’s not correct to equate price and value.’
Mr Shanahan cites rising household expenses, ‘particularly with energy’, and a renewed uncertainty around ‘what impacts are down the tracks’ in light of an ever-changing Covid situation, as further potential contributors to a drop in St Stephen’s Day splurging.
However, he adds that consumers are also focusing on buying local, with ‘many surveys suggesting that they’re prepared to pay a little more to support local makers.’
Those who do venture out to the shops today can expect to be tempted by slashed prices from some of Ireland’s foremost retailers.
Anyone living in the vicinity of one of Currys’ 16 stores nationwide can make a saving of €600 on an
LG 55in smart TV, down from €1,999, or save €500 on a 65in Panasonic smart TV – now €949. Other highlights include a saving of €130 on a Garmin smartwatch, now going for €229.
Jaimie Cantwell, head of commercial at Currys Ireland, does not share Mr Shanahan’s prediction of a more subdued St Stephen’s Day in retail.
‘Last year, Christmas Eve was busier [than the 26th], but that was an extraordinary year in general,’ she tells the MoS. ‘We expect St Stephen’s Day to regain the top spot this year and be the true kickoff to the January sales.’
Department store Brown Thomas,
which has outlets in Cork, Dublin, Galway and Limerick, will offer what it calls ‘extraordinary reductions’ of up to 50% across its range of fashion, accessories, footwear, homeware and technology.
Shoppers will be able to get their hands on items that were previewed online on Christmas Eve -– as is the case with Arnott’s of Dublin, which is also offering discounts of up to 50% ‘across many departments’. A Weekend Max Mara trench coat that was €685 last week, for example, can now be yours for €375.
Furniture and electronics megastore Harvey Norman, meanwhile, is offering savings of up to 50% on sofas and dining furniture, up to 30% on big-screen TVs, up to 20% on coffee machines and washing machines, and up to €300 on laptops.
Subjected to months of restrictions earlier in the pandemic, non-essential retail has been allowed to continue to operate freely in recent weeks; the hospitality sector once again taking the brunt of preventative measures against the spread of Covid.
‘You’ll notice that even though we have a more transmissible variant, there are no controls on admissions to shops this time of year as there were last year,’ says Mr Shanahan.
‘I can’t see people being comfortable going into stores with hundreds of other shoppers, but responsible retailers will control that situation.’