Tills fail to ring loudly with slow start to the sales season
With the competing attractions of meetings at Leopardstown and Limerick cancelled due to the bad weather, store owners might have been forgiven for expecting that bargain hunters would certainly be at the races.
However, the lingering effect of the big chill and poor road conditions meant many shoppers stayed away from the first day of the sales, despite the onset of warmer temperatures and a welcome thaw.
Instead, business leaders will be hoping that customers will finally emerge from hibernation today to avail of the thousands of bargains and discounts on offer across a range of outlets.
In Dublin, Grafton Street was unusually quiet for most of the day, although the postponement of the Brown Thomas winter sale due to flooding of the store was probably a contributory factor.
All floors of the group’s flagship outlet suffered water damage due to the activation of a sprinkler system located in a stores area at the top of the building which is believed to have been caused by the changing temperatures.
Stephen Sealey, managing director of the Brown Thomas group, said a quarter of the store’s floor area had suffered various degrees of flooding, although the exact value of the damage has still to be quantified.
“Most of the damage occurred to the rear of the building but 99% of the store will be re-opened [today],” said Mr Sealey.
He claimed the worst area affected by the flooding was the section housing women’s contemporary fashions.
A group of 50 BT workers spent yesterday re-arranging displays so that the planned sale can go ahead this morning from 9am.
Mr Sealey said discounts of up to 60% would be available across all departments, while it is expected some stock damaged in yesterday’s flooding would also be subject to further discounts.
Across the River Liffey, business was somewhat brisker on the city’s other main shopping thoroughfare, Henry Street, although it was still relatively quiet compared to most normal trading days.
Nevertheless, over 500 shoppers turned up outside Arnotts hoping for some retail-style X Factor as the ITV show’s singing sensation, Mary Byrne, cut the ribbon to formally open the department store’s Christmas sale.
Mary also entertained the crowd with a few songs including Could It Be Magic, Something, This is My Life and her signature tune, It’s a Man’s World before meeting fans and signing autographs for over two hours.
The former Tesco employee also met Arnotts’ personal shopper, Ciara Halpin, to select outfits for the upcoming X Factor tour. “I really enjoyed every minute of opening the Arnotts winter sale. Everything went smoothly and everyone was very kind,” smiled Mary.
Arnotts general manager, Leesa Kavanagh, said business was slow yesterday morning due to the weather but picked up significantly from lunchtime, while the store’s car park was full since 10.30am.
Ms Kavanagh said the busiest sections of the store were the men’s sports, ladies’ handbags and linen departments with discounts of up to 50% on many items.
Over 100 eager customers had waited outside Arnotts overnight in freezing conditions to avail of the many bargains.
At the head of the queue were friends Togi Tsoodol and Sabika Syergaz from Mongolia who had started queuing from 2pm on Christmas Day and were delighted to pick up an American-style fridge freezer which had been reduced from €699 to €299.
Out in the suburbs, with the attraction of indoor shopping centres, there appeared to be more bustle with busy traffic reported around centres like Dundrum, Liffey Valley, Blanchardstown and the Pavilions in Swords.
In south Dublin, the Dundrum Town Centre extended its usual Sunday closing hours from 6pm to 7pm as a result of the large number of shoppers
Don Nugent, the centre’s director, said he expected over 2.5 times the number of people would be through its doors yesterday compared to St Stephen’s Day in 2009.
“Our car parks have been almost full since mid-morning with many people obviously attracted by €2 parking for three hours,” said Mr Nugent.
“We also have a lot more stores open than on the same day last year and many people seem to be buying judging by the number of bags they are carrying,” he added.
One of the centre’s main stores, House of Fraser, claimed it has surpassed last year’s sales figures by 2.30pm yesterday.
Outside Dublin, both BT and Debenhams reported busy trading at their stores in Cork, Galway and Limerick.
In Cork, shoppers made heavy weather of the first day of the sales yesterday.
Many were relieved to be able to drive into the city after the thaw cleared the roads of ice and snow but most were content to confine their activities to window shopping.
Most of the smaller boutiques were closed and of the stores that were open, only Debenhams in Patrick Street looked like they were doing any serious selling.
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