Boxing Day crowds thin as sales extended through weekend

RAD­HI­CA DE SIL­VA

Se­nior Mul­ti­me­dia Re­porter

rad­hi­[email protected]

The usu­al throngs of shop­pers who tra­di­tion­al­ly line up out­side stores for Box­ing Day bar­gains were no­tice­ably ab­sent along High Street, San Fer­nan­do, a con­trast to pre­vi­ous years when long lines formed be­fore dawn to cap­i­talise on deep dis­counts.

In years past, shop­pers packed the streets ea­ger to take ad­van­tage of JD’s Ex­clu­sive’s an­nu­al 33 per cent Box­ing Day sale. This year, how­ev­er, foot traf­fic was lighter, though re­tail­ers re­main op­ti­mistic.

Christ­mas shop­per Sharon Forte of San Fer­nan­do said she de­lib­er­ate­ly wait­ed un­til Box­ing Day to shop in hopes of sav­ing mon­ey.

“I opt­ed to shop on Box­ing Day rather than be­fore Christ­mas to cap­i­talise on the sale. It is my first time shop­ping ear­ly on Box­ing Day and I find the sale at JD’s is re­al­ly good,” she said.

At JD’s Ex­clu­sive, su­per­vi­sor Denise Om­mer ex­plained that the re­duced crowds may be linked to a change in strat­e­gy, with the Box­ing Day sale now ex­tend­ed be­yond a sin­gle day.

“In the years gone by, the crowd was a lit­tle big­ger,” Om­mer said. “This year the crowd is not as high, prob­a­bly be­cause we have ex­tend­ed it for the en­tire week­end, where­as be­fore it was just for Box­ing Day.”

She said the store is of­fer­ing its an­nu­al 33 per cent dis­count and ex­pects traf­fic to in­crease as the day pro­gress­es.

“As the time goes along, the crowd builds up, and it’s go­ing to get big­ger,” Om­mer said, not­ing that the store will re­main open un­til 6 pm. “Peo­ple are prob­a­bly stretch­ing it out now over a longer pe­ri­od in­stead of rush­ing in one day.”

Om­mer added that while Christ­mas sales were “pret­ty good,” broad­er eco­nom­ic chal­lenges may al­so be in­flu­enc­ing con­sumer spend­ing.

“I think in some ways it has an ef­fect be­cause a lot of peo­ple lost their jobs,” she said. “With is­sues like re­trench­ment and oth­er prob­lems the coun­try is fac­ing, you will find some cut­backs in cer­tain ar­eas. But over­all, it still turned out fair­ly well.”

Re­tail­ers along High Street said Christ­mas sales were pal­try but they were hope­ful that spread­ing the sale across the en­tire week­end will en­cour­age more shop­pers to trick­le in, even if the tra­di­tion­al Box­ing Day rush is be­com­ing a thing of the past.