Last week’s public sector strikes delivered a much needed boost to the British high street after footfall surged by nearly 40 per cent.
Many public sector employees and parents of school-age children opted to go Christmas shopping after the walkout by 1.5 million public sector workers. Sales are estimated at an extra £500,000.
Parents were forced to take the day off work to look after their children as two-thirds of state schools closed.
Experian, the consumer behaviour research house, reported that visits to commercial property retailers were up by 38.31 per cent last Wednesday, compared with the same Wednesday last year.
The research firm commented: “The difference this year was that with no snow, public sector workers and others taking the day off work to care for their children off school, took advantage of the strike action and opted to do Christmas shopping.”
The Bluewater commercial property shopping centre in Kent said footfall was up 20 per cent on a usual Wednesday.
Commercial property, John Lewis also benefited as revenues grew by 10.5 per cent in the four days to the end of Wednesday, following two weeks of falling sales.
Commercial property, Westfield Stratford City in East London saw “its busiest week” since opening in September. Birmingham’s shopping and leisure complex, The Bullring, recorded a 32 per cent increase in shoppers, while the Metro Centre in Gateshead has its busiest day yet.
Tony Shiret, retail analyst at RBS, said: “I don’t think that the fact that people go to Bluewater instead of school will provide any lasting boost to the economy.”
Managing director of Conlumino, Neil Saunders, said: “High streets and shopping malls may have been crowded, but the number of people carrying shopping bags looked a lot less positive.
He further commented: “Browsing in the mall is a cheap day out. But when retailers get round to reporting trading figures, I think we’ll find that spending won’t be up quite so sharply.”
The Treasury estimated that the disruption caused by the biggest strike in 30 years is expected to cost the UK £500m, or approximately one tenth of the Royal Wedding earlier this year.
Commercial property, St George’s Centre in Preston saw nearly 20,000 extra shoppers throughout last Wednesday, where the rest of the city centre saw shoppers up by a third compared with the previous week.
Ken Williams, St George’s manager said trade was almost as strong as a Saturday, when the centre the centre gets an average of 48,000 people through the doors.
He commented: “The shops were absolutely delighted, and some of them were reporting sales which were double the previous year. People took the opportunity to come in for the day, and there were a lot of children in the centre as well, which was great for us.
“It gave a great boost ahead of the Christmas sales period which is now in full swing.”
The shopping centre even had to enlist extra staff members to help get shoppers in and out of its car park, which was full throughout the day.
Store Manager, Adam Melling of Burton menswear shop in the St George’s Centre said: “It definitely felt like the first proper day of Christmas shopping for us, other than November pay weekend.”
“The strike did us some favours. There was definitely a positive impact.”
“The spending definitely went up in store.”
Store manager of the Body Shop in the St George’s Centre, Rachel Brown, said: “It was really, really busy. We had a really good day.”
“It’s getting busier anyway now but it was doubly busy. People kept saying ‘we’re off so were doing a bit of shopping’.”
Stephanie North, a customer service assistant in Primark, Fishgate, said: “It was very, very busy. There was a non-stop queue for about two hours between 2pm and 4pm.”
A spokesperson for commercial property Miss Selfridge in Fishgate said: “We were a little busier. There were quite a few mothers and daughters shopping together.”
Owner of Café Fresch in the St George’s Centre, Wendy Harrison, said they profited from shoppers stopping off for breaks and were 15 per cent up compared to an average Wednesday.
She commented: “The shop was a lot busier. There were a lot more people coming in having lunch and coffee in the afternoon and a lot of children having the day off school.”
However, Mrs Harrison said they march through the city centre meant she was not able to get back to the shop to pick up food for outside catering deliveries.
The strike also caused problems for the indoor market due to the outdoor market being closed.
Owner of the K and H Ball fruit and veg stall in the indoor market, Kate Ball said: “It was a bit quieter.
She further commented: “When people looked at the outdoor market and they saw it closed, they thought everything was closed.”
Meanwhile, parts of Oxford Street in Central London was shut to traffic last among fears Christmas shoppers could be crushed, as pavements were narrower due to construction work. The area from Oxford Circus to Portman Street shut at noon for eight hours.
Westminster City Council, who closed the area, said the situation could see similar closures on other weekends.
