Thanks but no thanks: first present returned at 7.02am

THE first unwanted present was sent back to the store at 7.02am on Christmas Day.

The day had barely started when the parcel was left for collection at a shop in Salisbury, wiltshire.

And 38 minutes later, another gift was deposited in Glasgow, with one in Norwich soon afterwards.

One unhappy recipient sent back seven parcels from Enfield, north

London, while another returned six from wokingham, Berkshire.

The timings were recorded by the Collect+ parcel firm, according to payment systems firm Paypoint.

In total 419 parcels were returned across the UK on the day.

Meanwhile the Boxing Day sales were a flop with the number of shoppers down by nearly a tenth on last year as Black Friday, online sales and discounts before Christmas took their toll, according to figures.

But London’s west End bucked the trend with 800,000 hitting Oxford Street, Regent Street and surrounding areas. It was down

6.4 per cent on last year. this was better than the national average of minus 8.6 per cent. Professor Joshua Bamfield, director of the Centre for Retail Research, calculated that internet shopping accounted for 30 per cent of sales over Christmas, up from the 18.5 per cent average share.

He said: “One of the problems for retailers are there are so many discounts over Christmas that Boxing Day sales are not as thrilling as they once were. then there is the impact of online sales.”

Dianewehrle, of retail data firm Springboard, said customers spend Boxing Day with family and venture out in the following days.

She said: “People keep an eye online and check items are still on sale, so there’s no pressure to go out straight away as there was

20 to 30 years ago.”