Bargain hunters defy crunch to hit sales

Bargain hunters flooded high streets and shopping centres yesterday as two of the UK's biggest retailers added their stores to the post-Christmas sales frenzy.

Thousands of shoppers queued up outside John Lewis and Marks & Spencer outlets across the country before piling through the doors to take advantage of deals and discounts.

Both stores were shut on Boxing Day although their online sales were already under way.

In Milton Keynes 15,000 shoppers gathered at thecentre:mk, which has more than 230 stores, even before doors opened at 11 a.m.

Over 1,000 queued outside John Lewis and M&S before trading started.

Centre director Robert Goodman said: "The early response to the post-Christmas sales has been tremendous.

"Initial reports are that whilst sales items are flying off the shelves, full-price merchandise is also selling surprisingly well."

John Lewis said a strong start to its online sales "boded well" for its high street stores. The online clearance - which began at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve - enjoyed a record first three days with sales up 23 per cent on last year.

Boxing Day saw the highest-ever number of visits to the site, peaking between 11 a.m. and 12 p.m., while orders were placed every 10 seconds on Christmas Day.

Pillows towels, LCD televisions and laptops were among the best sellers.

A Marks & Spencer spokeswoman said around 2,500 people flooded into its flagship Marble Arch store in central London within the first 20 minutes of trading - with some shoppers waiting since 7 a.m. to grab a bargain.

Earlier yesterday Norman Black, from Brent Cross Shopping Centre, said: "We are currently trading ahead of 2008 sales levels, and in line with 2007 when we had a record day on the December 27, since the Centre opened in 1976.

"Brent Cross opened an hour early today, due to the number of shoppers queueing outside.

"So far, we have seen 12,000 people an hour flooding into the centre to take advantage of the first day of sales at John Lewis, Fenwick and Marks & Spencer - this is expected to continue until we close at 6 p.m. with it being a shorter day due to Sunday trading hours.

"Yesterday the Centre had over 75,000 shoppers by the end of the day, a 6.6 per cent uplift on Boxing Day in 2008, and several of our stores had already hit their sales targets by 2 p.m."

Initial figures suggested confidence was up compared to this time last year, when the recession's grip was at its tightest.

Many canny consumers were also aiming to beat the VAT hike on January 1.

Initial footfall figures for Boxing Day from market data firm Experian showed a 18.5 per cent jump in the number of shoppers compared with last year.

"Centres or retailers that didn't open this Boxing Day may be feeling that they have lost out on their share of the consumers' wallet," Experian's senior analyst Anita Sharma Manan said.