West End stores ring up £180m in a day

Retailers across the UK slashed their prices to entice Christmas shoppers into stores, over what is traditionally one of the busiest shopping weekends of the year.

More than 1.5 million shoppers flooded to London’s West End, spending £180m on Saturday, the New West End Company, which represents 600 traders in Oxford Street, Regent Street and Bond Street, said.

Selfridges, in Oxford Street, said customers were queuing to get in when the store opened at 11.30am, with headphones, iPads, Kindles and chocolates among the most popular items.

And tills were similarly busy across the region, with people taking advantage of weekend-only discounts and giveaways.

David Bradley, duty manager at the White Rose Centre, in Leeds, said new extended opening hours had helped to boost trade.

“We’ve been very busy even though economic conditions aren’t very good and we’re hoping it continues like this. We have slightly increased our opening hours from last year until 10pm which has made a difference and some of the shops have got sales on, which is drawing in the crowds,” he said.

Shoppers have also been flocking to Sheffield’s Meadowhall, with car parks at the shopping centre filling up fast.

A Meadowhall spokesman said: “It’s been a very busy weekend continuing on the back of what has been a very busy week. Retailers have seen tills ringing non stop as Christmas shoppers take advantage of the many great deals ready for the big day.”

Yesterday it was revealed that nearly a third of people will ignore the economic turbulence and take on debt to finance their Christmas plans.

A survey by YouGov on behalf of banking platform Intelligent Environments said 31 per cent of Britons will get through the festive period by taking out loans or by borrowing money from friends and family.

Among that group, 58 per cent will spend more than average on their credit cards, 39 per cent will be overdrawn, 11 per cent will borrow from friends and family and six per cent will take out a personal loan, with some people doing more than one of the above. The research found that one in ten will lose control of their Christmas spending, even as another recession looms.