Retailers hold their nerve
With day-to-day trading of constant interest to retailers, Retail-week.com is interviewing a number of Mall centre managers during the final week of Christmas shopping.

The second report comes from The Mall Norwich General Manager Martin MacWhinnie.

He said: 'We are now in the midst of that annual staring contest between retailers and shoppers, waiting to see who will blink first. So far, none of our retailers have hit the Sale button, which may be evidence that the stores are holding their nerve, buoyed by the prospect of another weekend's trading before Christmas.

'The key to our success so far this season has been a strong line up of retailers with wide and varied offers. We have a number of new retailers experiencing their first Christmas at The Mall, including TK Maxx, Peacocks, The Perfume Shop, Zumo and New Heights.

'Footfall levels have been positive against 2005 and 2004, better than the national trend by about 8 per cent to 10 per cent for the past 5 weeks. With new competition in the shape of Chapelfield shopping centre, which opened in September 2005, these results are very encouraging.

'With more places to shop, many of our retailers are telling us that a drop in numbers of spending customers is being offset by higher average transaction values and better quality sales.

'Traditional toys have been popular this year, such as dolls houses, garages and musical instruments. Shoppers are buying more traditional wooden toys for their children, based on educational rather than just entertainment value.

'Despite this, gadgets remain extremely popular gifts, particularly interactive games consoles such as Nintendo Wii and DS Lite. I-toy and Singstar are also selling well.

'The Kylie Darling gift set is selling very well, perhaps in part because of her recent return to the public eye, likewise the Beckham's Intimately [fragrance] is also doing well. The Guinness Book of World Records and plethora of celebrity autobiographies are also very popular. Children's books continue to do well.

'As schools in Norwich break up today, this marks the start of a hectic run up to the weekend. We expect activity this Saturday to be quite spectacular. Our grotto has been phenomenally successful this year.'

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