Spending power back in fashion on high street as retail sales at strongest since 2008
Black Friday saw traffic chaos in many towns and cities as shoppers piled into shops in search of pre-Christmas bargains. Stores all were knocking up to 50% off the normal retail price, with many of the sales continuing today and tomorrow.
The multi-million shopping spree coincided with figures from the CSO which saw the volume of retail sales fall 0.8% in October. However, on an annual basis retail sales are up almost 7%.
The sectors with the largest month on month volume increases were furniture and lighting (+3.8%), bars (+2.1%), and department stores (+1.4%). The sectors with the largest monthly decreases were electrical goods (-2.9%), fuel (-2.1%), and hardware, paints, and glass (-1.3%)
Merrion economist Alan McQuaid said that although retail sales were a little lower than expected last month, the outlook was positive.
“While most attention has been on cars, personal spending in other areas is picking up too and is becoming more broad-based,” he said. “This can only be good news for retailers and employment prospects in the sector.
Mr McQuaid predicted that 2016 will be a strong one for the retail sector and will herald the biggest rise in personal spending since the days of the Celtic Tiger.
Davy economist David McNamara said although it was too early to analyse the impact of Black Friday on sales for November, 2015 was the strongest year for retail sales since 2008.
Although barely a year old in Irish terms, Black Friday is already being billed as the biggest weekend for Irish online shopping in history.
Experts predict bargain hungry consumers will spend €130m online and in store in the biggest weekend for internet shopping ever. A total of €31m was expected to be spent online yesterday, before peaking on Cyber Monday, when €33m in internet purchases will be made.
