Supermarkets braced for peak trade in a final festive frenzy
SUPERMARKETS are braced for one of their biggest-ever trading days as consumers do their “big shop” ahead of the festive long weekend.
Sainsbury’s expects today to be the best trading day in its history, with customers predicted to spend more than £160m in store and online on their last major shop before Christmas Day.
Waitrose has predicted that the period from 11am to noon today will be the busiest hour of the festive season at its tills.
A vehicle will leave a Waitrose distribution centre every 90 seconds during the week before Christmas and the grocer has recruited 5,000 temporary staff to help over the period, while Sainsbury’s will be delivering an online grocery order every second today between 7am and 11pm.
Tesco expects to serve 15,000 customers every minute and is braced for more than 20 million people to shop in its stores over today and tomorrow.
Tesco branches are stocked to sell 200,000 turkey crowns and birds on Friday alone, a total of 27 million Christmas carrots and 60 million British Brussels sprouts.
Sainsbury’s chief executive Mike Coupe said: “We know it’s going to be a bumper shopping weekend. Over 1,800 colleagues from our central offices will be in stores over the next couple of days, helping everyone stock up ahead of the big day.”
Meanwhile, Morrisons is taking steps to ensure customers remember often-forgotten items ahead of most supermarkets closing at 4pm on Christmas Eve in accordance with Sunday trading rules.
Checkouts are being redesigned so that shoppers trail past the items, instore radio messages will be used to jog customers’ memories, and checkout managers will wear uniforms which list the items on their backs.
Retail analysts ShopperTrak expect high-street footfall to rise 37% on the daily average today as consumers fit in last-minute shopping around the last working day before Christmas.
Meanwhile, there will be disruption on the railways, with passengers asked to check timetables as there will be alterations due to improvement and engineering works being carried out.
Many train companies will also be making changes to their timetable to match service levels to the number of customers travelling.
Rail companies say that most of the investment work has been scheduled for when no trains are planned to run, such as on Christmas Day and Boxing Day.
Mark Carne, chief executive at Network Rail, said: “While most of the network is open for business as usual, some routes are heavily affected and so we strongly advise passengers to plan ahead this Christmas.
“We know that our railway is up to 50% quieter than usual during the festive period, so taking on and delivering these huge transformational schemes at this time of year minimises our impact on passengers who, so research shows, understand the need for such activity.”