UK Shoppers set to spend £2bn on Christmas Eve
Pastor Dale Morgan
UK Shoppers set to spend £2bn on Christmas Eve*
By Stephen Adams
Last Updated: 2:13am GMT 24/12/2007
Shoppers are set to spend more than £2 billion on Monday as almost half
of all adults take to the high street for a last-minute spending spree.
Many people plan to take advantage of having Christmas Eve off work,
while others have been forced into the shops after their internet orders
failed to materialise because delivery companies are struggling to cope
with the enormous demand.
More than 19 million people are expected to spend £2.14 billion - nearly
£1.5 million every minute - according to research by Sainsbury's credit
card business.
Christmas shoppers set to spend £2bn today
Many have left Christmas shopping until the last minute
The surge follows a bumper weekend for retailers that appears to have
saved them from a dismal December.
Britain's biggest delivery firm has admitted that thousands of gifts
ordered online would not arrive in time for Christmas Day.
Walter Blackwood, chairman of Home Delivery Network Limited, which makes
deliveries for companies including Amazon, John Lewis and Tesco, said:
"The sheer volume means that, unfortunately, it's inevitable that
thousands will go missing."
His admission came after The Daily Telegraph reported how complaints
about missed deliveries of internet-purchased presents have soared by
nearly a third on last year.
advertisement
Hundreds also spent the weekend queuing in freezing temperatures at
Royal Mail sorting offices to collect parcels, after postmen were
accused of not checking to see if recipients were at home.
Natasha Dolman, 27, queued to collect a parcel from a depot in
Totterdown, Bristol. The teaching assistant said: "I've just queued for
two hours in the freezing cold because they said my parcel wouldn't get
through the door. It's a book for heaven's sake. It could definitely get
through. Everyone is talking about how the postmen hadn't even tried to
post the parcels."
A Royal Mail spokesman denied there was a systematic problem, saying:
"If there are individual cases where people say they had a card
delivered and they say they were at home at the time we will look into
them."
Undelivered parcels aside, many more people have left their Christmas
shopping until the last minute.
Saturday was a "very busy day" at Bluewater, Europe's biggest shopping
complex, in Kent, according to a spokesman.
She said: "Customers this year seem to have followed the trend of the
past few years in leaving their shopping until closer to Christmas. With
Christmas Day falling on Tuesday this year, we are expecting a peak in
sales over this weekend and Christmas Eve with many people cramming in
last-minute shopping."
The British Retail Consortium (BRC) said Saturday was likely to be "the
busiest day in the pre-Christmas period, and therefore the busiest day
of the year". Total December sales, including internet sales, are on
target to be 2.5 per cent higher in cash terms than last year, said
Kevin Hawkins, the director general of the BRC.
• More than £23 million is expected to be spent on mince pies and sherry
left for Santa. More than four in 10 say that they leave out food on
Christmas Eve, according to a survey by YouGov.