Retail industry in shock as Boxing Day sales in central London drop nearly 70%

Retailers in central London and the UK are in shock as the number of bargain hunters looking for Boxing Day sales on Main Street has fallen to almost half of pre-pandemic levels .

In central London, attendance was 67% lower than in 2019, while it was 58% lower than 2019 in other major UK cities.

The volume of traffic on main streets may also have been affected by new coronavirus restrictions that took effect in Wales, Scotland and Northern Ireland on Sunday, including the wearing of masks in all shops and limiting the size of groups to six inside.

Attendance in Northern Ireland was 73% below 2019 levels, 63% below in Wales and almost 50% below in Scotland.

But the British Retail Consortium said that while many consumers have avoided stores, the industry could see a boost from e-commerce.

Tom Holder, spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium, said: “The spread of Omicron across the UK has increased the share of online spending as many consumers avoid city centers.

“While travel and hospitality spending may be lower than pre-pandemic levels, retailers are waiting to see if this leads to increased spending on retail products, especially food and household items. . “

Tom Holder, spokesperson for the British Retail Consortium

Despite the drop, large queues formed outside the Trafford Center in Manchester with shoppers waiting since 8 a.m., while bargain hunters also lined up outside Primark in Birmingham and Zara in Bristol.

There were also queues outside Selfridges, Boots, Primark, Disney and Zara on Oxford Street in London.

Queuing outside the Disney store on Oxford Street in London to shop on behalf of her daughter, Nic Portway of London said she did not plan to spend much on sales but that she was happy to visit stores in person despite the increase in Covid cases.

She said: “I’m not really surprised how many people are missing because we have to keep going, there will always be another variation, so what do we do?

“We can’t keep locking every time there is a new variant, otherwise everything will stop. “

Londoner Nic Portway

Another customer said she was only out on Boxing Day because her planned Christmas Day online shopping at Zara failed due to an error on the app.

The woman said: “I was surprised to see so many people outside, when I walked down Oxford Circus there was hardly anyone there, but when I got to Oxford Street there were big queues of people. waiting, all around the corners. “

Masks were worn by most Oxford Street shoppers, whether in a queue or while walking, but many stores were not crowded.