Shoppers shun ‘Super Saturday’ as footfall declines

‘Super Saturday’ registered an annual decline in footfall of 7.6% compared with a 0.7% year-on-year decline the previous year.

Over the whole week footfall increased 2.3% however this is less than the 9.6% increase compared with the same period the previous year according to the latest figures from Springboard.

High streets and shopping centres were the worst affected and both registered year-on-year footfall decline of -8% and -7.2% respectively.

The decline in footfall at retail parks was more modest at -5.5%.

However, on a week-on-week basis footfall rose 7.2%, although this was not enough to boost the annual rise - which declined year-on-year by 7.2%.

During the week to December 21, footfall worsened as the week progressed with an average decline of -9.3% between Thursday and Saturday compared to -5.2% between Sunday and Wednesday.

Every area geographically reported an annual drop in footfall during the period with every area recording a drop greater than -5% and in six areas the decrease was in excess of -8%.