£1.6bn boost is too late’

AN estimated 10 million shoppers jammed high streets yesterday for price cuts of up to 80 PER CENT.

A huge range of items, from toys to perfume, were marked down as retailers made a last-ditch bid for festive trade – with tills expected to take £1.6billion.

The biggest price cuts were at Sports Direct where some items were down 80 per cent, and House of Fraser and Topshop slashed prices by 60 per cent.

Meanwhile

Debenhams will start its sale tomorrow – two days early.

But as stores went all out to woo shoppers away from internet retailers, experts warned the high street bloodbath – which claimed 93,000 jobs in 2018 – will go on.

Independent analyst Richard Hyman said: “It’s the toughest retail market anyone has ever seen, and next year it’ll be worse.

Dangerous

“It’s a very dangerous kind of cycle that retailers have got themselves in.

“The discount market isn’t being led by consumers demanding a bargain, it’s being led by retailers who are so lacking in confidence in their own business they’re worried the guy next door is going to go on sale.”

Figures out yesterday from analyst firm Springboard showed total high street, shopping centre and retail park shopper numbers fell 6.6 per cent last week compared to the same week in 2017.

Meanwhile Christmas Day spending is forecast to top £1billion for the first time due to the online shopping boom.

Springboard’s Diane Wehrle said: “The fact the last few days before Christmas are incredibly busy will be irrelevant. Retailers are going to go into the new year with less cash than they need.”