Big freeze throws shop sales into meltdown

The number of people shopping plunged by almost 50pc in some areas of the UK last week as snowy conditions deterred people from doing their Christmas shopping.

Leeds City centre grinds to a halt due to the heavy snowfall.
Story by James Hall in The Telegraph,  05 Dec 2010


The devastating fall in the number of Britons hitting the stores will have cost retailers tens of millions of pounds in lost sales at what should be their busiest time of year.

The number of people shopping in Yorkshire and Humberside fell by 42pc between Monday and Thursday of last week, compared to the same week in 2009. Shopper numbers in Scotland fell by 36pc, while the number of people visiting the UK's regional shopping centres – such as Bluewater in Kent and Lakeside Shopping Centre in Essex – fell by 33pc.

The figures were obtained by The Sunday Telegraph from Synovate Retail Performance, a company that counts shoppers using electronic sensors in 5,500 stores up and down the country.

Shopper numbers in London fell by 18pc, while the UK as a whole experienced a 22pc fall. Least affected was the North-West, where customer traffic fell by 16.5pc.


Dr Tim Denison, director of retail intelligence at Synovate, said that the decline will have had a huge impact on store groups' Christmas sales figures: "Once retailers get behind with sales there is no way of catching up."

Full story at The Telegraph.