Poor weather fails to dampen spirits as tills ring out for sales
Despite the poor weather, there was an upbeat spirit among shop owners and staff as customers — who may have been more cautious than expected in the lead-up to Christmas — began taking advantage of their sale prices.
Pam O’Regan, an owner at Saville Menswear in Cork city centre, said the poor weather did not dampen spirits and it had a muster of male customers outside the door on Oliver Plunkett St ahead of its 9am opening.
“We’ve had a cross-section of customers, people looking for suits and casual, they’re all going very well so far,” she said, in a brief break from the shop floor at lunchtime.
“We had a good pre-Christmas and it was very noticeable that there was a lot of cash compared with other years. People are in better form than in previous years, which makes a big difference, they seem to know where they stand financially.”
It was not just independent retailers who had customers queuing in the rain, as many department stores admitted hundreds in the morning to grab the best of the bargains on offer.
Sean Murphy, deputy chief executive of Retail Excellence Ireland, said morning business in the electrical sector was reported to be on a par with last year, and very strong sales were being recorded in menswear and in young people’s fashion.
This followed what the group said was just a marginal increase in Christmas spending compared to last year, with provincial towns nonetheless experiencing increased footfall in the days before Christmas as people came home from cities or overseas for the holidays.
Despite rain in many parts of the country, and threats of snow in the West and parts of Ulster, there were queues for many stores ahead of opening yesterday morning.
Arnotts in Dublin also reported strong male representation among the early winter sale shoppers, saying business by lunchtime was ahead of the full 2013 St Stephen’s Day figures. This was helped by its online sale going live at midnight on Christmas Eve into Christmas Day, and 150 people ready to pick up discounted goods at opening time yesterday.
“The momentum that built up in the last week pre-Christmas has continued into the first day of sale day as we are trading ahead of this day last year. We saw reasonably good single-digit growth across the store and we expect Saturday and the weekend to be very strong,” said Arnotts chief executive Ray Hernan.
And more queues were expected ahead of opening times today, with many more sales beginning at 9am for clothing, furniture, electrical, and other outlets.
The trends reported to business organisations are pointing to this week, between Christmas and New Year, becoming a much more important shopping period than in the past.
Many shoppers are using vouchers received as presents in the sales — either on themselves or for gifts for homes they will be visiting for the New Year celebrations.
There had been an expectation earlier in the month of a 2% rise in retail sales for December over last year, estimated to be worth around €80m. However, while this did not quite materialise, key retailers suggest a surge between now and New Year could see that target being reached.
“Hopefully the coming days and the early days of the New Year will see further improvement. Competition is intense and consumers will benefit from heavy discounting as the sales period gets into full swing,” said Thomas Burke, director of employers’ body Ibec’s Retail Ireland.
Apart from the seasonal lines — including greater demand for premium-end Christmas trees and decorations — Retail Ireland also reported some unexpected sectors being boosted.
An increase in colds, coughs, and chest infections led to a surge in sales of medicine over recent weeks, for example.
Irish retailers are also making the most of online sales, as many customers opt to do their shopping from the comfort of home.
“Shoppers are clearly looking to save on the more expensive listed items, with TVs, kitchenware, and tablets selling particularly well,” said Lorna Barker of price comparison site PriceSpy.ie.
