August Bank Holiday could give retailers the blues
Retailers looking for the traditional Bank Holiday flood of shoppers dashing to the high street could be disappointed this weekend
According to figures from the Retail FootFall Index, last year’s August Bank Holiday weekend saw a year-on-year increase of 16.4 per cent partly due to the timing of the Bank Holiday in 2003, however this year, shopper levels are likely to lower or flat at best the company says.
Natasha Burton, marketing manager at FootFall, “We are expecting shopper numbers over the Bank Holiday to be flat at best, largely due to the fact that many people will be choosing to take a holiday instead of visiting the high street. Historically there is a traditional rush of Bank Holiday breaks both in the UK and abroad with people taking full advantage of the final bank holiday of the year; last year over 15 million people set off for the seaside and over 1.6 million people left the country to travel overseas.
“There are other external factors which will influence how people spend their time during the Bank Holiday weekend. Retailers started their sales earlier this summer, making the Bank Holiday a non starter in terms of enticing people back to the high street and even those retailers discounting further could be disappointed. There’s also the anticipation of unsettled weather as well as the huge national interest in the cricket. Ashes fever has been a big surprise this summer and its huge popularity has inevitably hit the number of shoppers. The final day of the last test saw Channel 4 record its largest ever viewing figures with 7.7 million. This, combined with weather and holidays all paint a gloomy picture for the high street,”
