Shoppers in hunt for
HUNDREDS of people queued from the early hours to be the first into the Next Boxing Day sale in Cardiff.
The store’s Queen Street branch again had people queuing most of the night, as has been the case for years. Once opened, the queues for the tills inside stretched right the way to the back of the store. There was also a huge queue outside the Zara branch on Queen Street before it opened at 9am.
One woman came from Worcestershire to Cardiff for her Boxing Day shop with her daughter. They got here at 7am.
She said: “We come to the sales but not necessarily Cardiff. It kicks off early here so it’s the first shop open. It’s a genuine half price store, it seems to be an awful lot to go through. A lot of other shops are 30% off. Sometimes we get presents for next year, gift sets and things like that.”
Mary-Anne Hill, 37, came from Blackwood and arrived at 6.05am. She and her mother-in-law went to the nearby Leckwith store first.
“There is more home stuff there than here. We always go there then here. It was already open so we went straight in. This is the busiest it’s been in years. I normally buy bits for Christmas next year. We normally come here, then Boots, then M&S. We have bought clothes and all the home stuff over Leckwith.
“Every year we come, we do the same when there are sales all through the year, we have already done a VIP order online.”
One Next worker, who has worked in the store for 15 years, said it was quite busy this year but nothing unusual.
She said: “I came here for 6am and
PEOPLE started queuing as early as 6am on Boxing Day for some of the biggest Boxing Day deals ever offered.
Even though shops didn’t open until 9am, shoppers travelled to Cardiff’s city centre from far and wide to wait patiently in the rain in order to be the first in line to bag the top bargains. It was a little less frenetic in Swansea city centre, but nonetheless, retailers were gearing up for one of the busiest shopping days of the year.
Not all bargain hunters headed out onto the high street however, as the bad weather deterred many from venturing out at all. Footfall was reportedly down 10% in high streets and shopping centres across the country, according to retail experts Springboard. They said footfall in the period up to midday on Boxing Day had seen the largest decline of any year since it began publishing data it was halfway down Queen Street. I have worked here for 15 years and every year is different. As soon as the doors opened this morning people were just flying in.
“I found it quite busy – as soon as people got their stuff they were buying. Homeware and kids sell through the quickest. People bulk buy in sizes and then they return it. We always try and keep on top of things and we have a bag sorting area so people aren’t looking through their shopping on the floor in the middle of the store.
“I work on the shoe lounge and it is always chaos down there. Everything is on the shop floor so you will find that some things are full priced but the rest is sale.
“It does go up and down, it tends to be busier in the morning but it eases off at about 8am, but then throughout the mid morning it will pick up again.” 10 years ago, with insights director Diane Wehrle, saying the Boxing Day sales were “indisputably” less important than they used to be.
While it was hoped figures might improve slightly through the day and into Friday, particularly if the rain stopped, retail experts still expected it likely to be substantially down on last year.
According to Love the Sales, the average Boxing Day discounts were 38% off, 2% higher than last year. The retail analysis company said the 2019 Boxing Day discounts were bigger than a year ago as retailers pulled out all the stops to offer deals that were better than Black Friday.
While many experts say the Boxing Day sales are losing ground to Black Friday and Cyber Monday, in Swansea
Diane Davies left her house in Pontypridd at 5.30am to go and pick her friend, Karen Potts, up from Tylorstown in Rhondda.
Karen, 48, and Diane, 57, have been friends for around 25 years and have been going shipping together on Boxing Day almost every year
there was some sign of optimism for retailers. In the final weekend before Christmas, Swansea’s Indoor Market reported one of its best days in the last six years in terms of footfall. According to Robert FrancisDavies, the cabinet member for enterprise and regeneration at Swansea Council, the market saw the biggest number of visitors in a single day in the week before Christmas.
Mr Francis-Davies said many retailers were struggling on the high street and overall, trade had been down in the city throughout the year. He said: “More and more people are doing their online shopping so it’s getting tougher for the high street to compete.
“It’s good to see our market with an occupancy rate of more than 90% and to see such a good footfall before Christmas is really encouraging. Our market is a real jewel and is just one way we are trying to bring more people since. Diane said: “I get for my grandkids, Christmas jumpers for next year. I have got myself some nice tops for New Year. I left my house at 5.30am, we got here about 6.30am.
“I was in bed at 11pm yesterday but I worked the day, I work with young people with learning disabilities. I’m into the city. I think that is the answer - to try and get people to see Swansea as a destination.”
According to Barclaycard, Britons are expected to spend £200 million less in the post-Christmas sales this year as environmental concerns drive down buying. Even so, some four in 10 UK adults will have made the most of sales from Boxing Day, spending an average of £186 each and a total of £3.7 billion, Barclaycard predicted.
Rob Cameron, chief executive of Barclaycard Payments, said: “Our data for Black Friday and Cyber Monday revealed a huge jump in transaction volumes this year, so it’s not surprising that consumers expect to have less money to spend after Christmas, so retailers need to take that into account.
“What’s more, our research shows that shoppers are increasingly thinking about how their purchases