Bargain hunters in Boxing Day sales record

The frenzy was so great that police had to be deployed in London, as shoppers, their eyes blazing and their arms outstretched, tried to force themselves on to the front line of the great Boxing Day bargain hunt. Many queued through the night to secure a prime position outside the store of their choice.

When stores opened, some from as early as six in the morning, it was “mayhem”, as thousands ran screaming through the aisles, grabbing as many designer and other on-sale items as they could carry. Crash barriers were installed in some places and armies of security guards hired to control the crowds.

In some stores, tourists outnumbered Britons in the hunt for labels such as Gucci, Burberry, Mulberry, Louis Vuitton and Prada, just to name a few. They came from far and wide, but notably from the Middle East and China. The UK is used to seeing wealthy shoppers from the Middle East but not yet from China.

Experts said a third of the bargain hunters in London’s West End this year were super rich tourists from the booming Far Eastern nation.

This may come as a surprise to some in TT who still think of the Chinese as either restaurant and laundry owners or labourers brought in by the previous government to work in the construction industry.

Chinese tourists spent an average of ?1,000 per transaction. High taxes on luxury goods in their home country make shopping attractive in Britain where the goods can also be guaranteed as genuine. In addition, Britain has streamlined the visa process for Chinese visitors, making London an ideal city for shoppers from the world’s fastest-growing economy.

Many stores employed Mandarin speakers, while some had signs in the language. The “Peking Pound” is so welcome now that key retailers let visitors pay in yuan, the Chinese currency.

China’s red-hot economy has created hundreds of millions of new middle-class households and London is their choice for shopping. Jace Tyrrell, a spokesman for West End stores, said, “The Peking Pound has been the big story. The Chinese can get products here that they cannot get anywhere else.”

Nationally, the number of shoppers was up by 21 per cent on the previous Boxing Day. With that many people hunting for a bargain, it was not surprising that tempers flared among aggressive and over-zealous shoppers. Scotland Yard said its officers were out on duty “from a public order perspective”.

But it was not only London that saw such a boost in sales. Cities across the UK also experienced a massive increase in the number of Boxing Day shoppers. The Bullring Shopping Centre in Birmingham had 230,000 customers. Hundreds started queuing at one o’clock in the morning outside the store they targeted to ensure that they nabbed a bargain.

The Trafford Centre in Manchester had its busiest Boxing Day ever, with police also drafted in to help manage the 200,000 shoppers. The Bluewater shopping centre in Kent saw about 120,000 visitors, with queues also forming at 1.00 a.m.

In Cardiff, the St David shopping centre welcomed 150,000 bargain hunters. There were similar stories from other main towns and cities.

Retailers slashed prices and opened their doors at dawn to compete with online rivals who were offering heavy discounts. The country’s biggest internet retailers jumped the gun on high street stores by bringing forward their sales to Christmas Eve. Millions also shopped for online bargains on Christmas Day itself, with a record 82 million website visits, up 32 per cent on 2011.

Whereas I can appreciate rich Chinese and Middle Eastern shoppers spending millions in the UK, I am at a loss to fully understand where the money came from for Britons to spend so much on Boxing Day. Perhaps, they forgot that the country is in a bit of economic difficulty.