Panic-buying could leave retailers breathing a sigh of relief

Experts say panic buying may have made Friday the busiest day of the year.

It had been feared interest rate rises and competition from the web had badly hit shops, especially after last weekend showed a 6% dip in shoppers.

Retailers responded by cutting prices and with buy-one-get-one-free offers to encourage more into their stores.

Male shoppers

Tom Nathan, head of London's Brent Cross Shopping Centre, said: "It's been fantastic. It has been really busy.

"It started with food shoppers coming in at 8am and food shopping has been busy all day.

"Having started fairly briskly, it then continued throughout the day.

Price cutting and buy-one-get-one-free offers have enticed shoppers

"It was relatively quiet but then it became busier and busier this afternoon."

Speaking at around 1730 GMT Friday he added: "It is still very busy. I think people tend to go toward the more expensive stuff at this time.

"It's panic buying ... in jewellery, chocolate, media and electrical."

Mr Nathan said he could see three different jewellery shops busy with men buying gifts for their partners.

"There is no question, people this year have left some of their Christmas shopping till late," he said.

The number of people out shopping on Thursday was 32% higher than it was on the same day Thursday last week and 21% higher than on Tuesday this week.

Final spree

Overall numbers in the past week were 2% up on the same period last year.

David Smyth, from retail analysts FootFall, who measure shopper numbers across the UK, said: "It appears that people worked the first three days of the week, and started their Christmas holiday on Thursday with a final shopping spree before travelling to Christmas destinations.

"In 2003, in comparison, many people took the first three days of the Christmas week off, and we saw a strong shopping day on Monday December 22, with people starting their Christmas travelling the following day.

"Although shopper volumes are evident, final retail trading figures will reveal the winners and losers over the Christmas period as we see whether the tactical, targeted discounting and sales have adversely affected margins."

Sale strategy

Concerns about Christmas trading had mounted on the back of a string of disappointing surveys.

First to sound the alarm was the British Retail Consortium, which said sales eased by 0.2% in November - the first fall since December last year.

Meanwhile, the CBI claimed a bumper Christmas would be a "big surprise" with just 12% of companies expecting good sales in December, while 21% believed they would be poor.

In November, Marks and Spencer dropped its in store prices by 20% for a day and then held a second such sale in December.