Late Night Shopping More Popular

Friday, 15 December 2023 11:02

Late-night shopping was nearly 36% more popular this year than in 2022, according to movements recorded on the High Street.

The annual event sees shops stay open into the evening on Thursdays in the run-up to Christmas.

Counters on The Pollet, Smith Street and Market Square steps recorded tens of thousands of movements on 7 December, up by 35.6% compared to the same time last year.

Head of the Guernsey Retail Group, Korinne Le Page says its likely people were nervous about the cost of living last year.

"We were just going into the [cost of living crisis], so you could say maybe there was a bit of reticence people weren't quite sure what was happening.

A year on into that and people have been affected in various ways, people were worried about what was happening and what was coming."

Inflation was running at 8% in December 2022, the rate of price rises has slowed slightly over the course of the year and now stands at 7%.

Korinne says that trends like Black Friday have changed shopping habits locally.

"The general pattern now is that people are tending to wait later because they know about Black Friday and Cyber Monday and are waiting for those promotions, so there is a delay that happens now.

The other interesting fact is that online shopping hasn't increased at the rate that [the British Retail Consortium] had expected."

Christmas Day falls on a Monday this year, which could further boost sales.

"There are two weekends between now and Christmas, sometimes if it falls on a weekend we lose that weekends shopping, so people could be waiting."