Retail footfall sparks over bank holiday weekend
By Abigail Townsend
Date: Tuesday 03 May 2022
(Sharecast News) - Retail footfall jumped over the early May bank holiday weekend, industry data showed on Tuesday.
According to retail consultancy Springboard, footfall rose across all UK retail destinations by 8% week-on-week in the three days to Monday 2 May.
Shopping centres saw the most trade over the three days, with footfall ahead 9.4% week-on-week, while retail parks reported an 8.2% improvement and high streets saw a 7.2% rise.
The bank holiday weekend jump in footfall was preceded by a more modest rise of 3.1% in the week to Saturday 30 April. Within that, there was a 0.7% week-on-week improvement on high streets, and increases of 5.3% and 5.9% at retail parks and shopping centres respectively.
Year-on-year, footfall in the week to 30 April was ahead 18.4% and down 15.1% when compared to 2019.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: "The early May bank holiday saw a considerable rise in footfall, closing the gap from 2019 footfall to just -8.3%. It seemed consumers deferred shopping trips until the weekend, causing a spike in footfall.
"Not only this, the significant pick up of retail park footfall over the Saturday and Sunday was undoubtedly driven by consumers restocking on food and groceries after the weekend.
"What's more, while it appears that Easter trips ended last week, with declines in footfall in coastal and historic towns, the bank holiday weekend showed a bounce back. This was reflected too in city centres around the UK."
Last week's 3.1% rise in footfall was fuelled by a 77.9% spike on Sunday 24 April, which benefited from comparisons to Easter Sunday a week earlier, when most shops were closed.
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