Expensive Last-Minute Christmas Eve Shopping

Research suggests, £951,000 per minute will have been spent on last minute shopping, with Sainsbury’s Credit Cards saying 19% of adult shoppers who spent around £1.37-billion, planned to do some of their seasonal shopping Thursday i. e. on Christmas Eve.

According to Experian, a financial data firm, consumers making the most of 2009’s last few days of shopping, expected over 13-million people to spend £57-million an hour on Christmas Eve shopping.

As people made last minute buys, major high street and online retailers reported brisk business, with home improvement and garden centre retailer B&Q starting its online and in-store sale Thursday.

Tesco’s online sale began Tuesday, while Debenhams online sale was launched Thursday at 0600 GMT.

Waitrose’s Wednesday sales at £38.7-million were up £4.4-million on the same day last year.

Despite overnight snow in the region, the weather failed to deter the huge shopper turnout, with Meadowhall Shopping Centre near Sheffield reporting large numbers of Christmas Eve shoppers, up
38% on 2008 figures.

Retailers in Cardiff also reported the number of Christmas Eve shoppers to have exceeded all expectations.

The figures for last minute shoppers have proven NRF’s report’s prediction of a one percent decline in 2009 holiday sales from that of last year, completely wrong.