Christmas sales: retailers report strong start despite snow disruption
• Asda: 4 million customers on 23 December
• Waitrose has ‘most successful Christmas’
• John Lewis sale beats previous record day by 30%
• Snow forces retailers to discount stock
Supermarket group Asda said today that it had a “good” Christmas while John Lewis hailed a “record” start to its Boxing Day sale, giving City analysts their first taste of how major retailers fared during the crucial trading period.
Experts are worried the freezing weather cost retailers sales but Asda suggested customers had learned from last year’s bad weather, with thousands choosing to split their “big shop” over two trips this year - a tactic that was also used to spread the cost of the holidays.
“The combination of bad weather and people working hard to budget this year has meant the Christmas shop has been spread across a longer period of time, with shoppers making a couple of trips to stock up for the festive season,” said Asda chief executive Andy Clarke.
Leeds-based Asda suggested it had won customers from rivals with its stores busier than last year in the fortnight leading up to Christmas, with 11 stores ringing up sales of nearly £80m.
In keeping with previous years, Asda said 23 December was its busiest day when it served a “record” 4 million customers across its 384 stores. The grocer added “initial analysis shows the full two weeks running up to Christmas were also busier than usual”.
Retail experts think the supermarkets will have picked up extra sales from the high street, possibly hitting specialists like HMV and Game as shoppers picked up last minute presents such as DVDs and CDs along with their turkey and sprouts rather than make another shopping trip.
Waitrose has already revealed that it had its “most successful Christmas on record” with like-for-like sales up 5.4% in the three weeks to 23 December. The retailer sold out of luxury treats like Heston Blumenthal’s Hidden Orange Christmas Pudding and £10 Delia Smith Christmas cake kits, but it also saw a rush on store cupboard staples as people stocked up to get them through the cold spell.
Stocking up
In anticipation of more bad weather Asda said customers had been filling their baskets with longer life and frozen items two weeks before the big day and had then returned for fresh produce and vegetables closer to Christmas. The group said its own bad weather contingency plans - dubbed “operation snowflake” - had worked, with 4.5m tonnes of salt used to keep its car parks clear.
Changing shopping habits mean that 27 December is now the biggest trading day of the retail year. Record numbers of consumers are expected to visit the shops this week with bigger-than-normal discounts available after the snow left more stock than expected on the shelves. Retailers believe the spending spree is a last hurrah before householders batten down the hatches in the face of rising VAT, a raft of price increases and big job losses in the public sector.
John Lewis said two of the first three days of its sale had set new records for the department store chain as customers queued to buy home furnishings like pillows and duvets as well as big ticket items like laptops and mattresses. “We have had a fantastic start to Clearance with both 27 and 28 December beating our previous record for a single day’s sales,” said its director of selling operations Nat Wakely. The retailer’s sales hit £27.8m on Monday - a 30% increase on its previous biggest ever day, which was 27 December 2008.
Upmarket department store Harvey Nichols also said that its sale had broken records with some shoppers arriving in the early hours to get their hands on last season’s must-have handbags such as Givenchy’s Lalia Boston studded bag at a fraction of their usual price.
Unlike rivals John Lewis does not open on Boxing Day, although its online clearance started at 5pm on Christmas Eve. Its instore sales started on Monday and trade for the first three days are is up more than 25% on last year, the group said.
“There has been an overwhelmingly positive response to our clearance offer with customers queuing outside our shops on the first day in anticipation of the bargains on offer,” added Wakely.
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