Shoppers flocked to East London shops on Thursday as rainy weather kept them away from the beaches. This comes despite a general slump since the festive season started.
By lunchtime the shoppers' rush bogged down the Vincent Park mall parking lot, making it one of the busiest days recorded at the centre over the past month.
Centre manager Joseph Parsley said the weather was to blame for the rush that choked all restaurants and walkways.
Earlier this week, however, East London businesses expressed mixed feelings about consumer spending this festive season with higher interest rates seemingly denting sales volumes.
Although some retailers raved about the amount of business they had done since Christmas shoppers descended on their shop floors in December, others described the past month as downright 'bad'.
The manager of Musica in Oxford Street, Vincent de Wet, said shoppers did not have lots of money to spend.
"It was a bad December compared to last year which was better."
"People were not into buying expensive presents. Even sales in the popular Play Station was slow. People tended to prefer small gifts," he said
CNA manager, Suzane Cavanagh agreed and said people had spent less; this festive season had not been positive like the previous one.
Sportsman Warehouse administration manager, Orchid Opperman, said their sales had been slow up to Christmas, only to pick up afterwards.
"Its looks like the interest rate had an impact. We did not have a lot of people buying things".
Boardmans registered a 6% reduction in sales and the store was busiest in the weekend before December 16.
"Compared to last year we did not perform well at all," store manager Billie Jacobs said.
Since June 2006 the interest rate has been hiked by 4 percentage points, bringing the bank's lending rate to 14.5%.
Elco's Vincent marketing manager Antoinette Stark however, said their sales were 'definitely up'. Although Stark did not give percentages in sales increase, she said audio appliances and furniture were in high demand.
Parsley said the Vincent Park tenants recorded sales increase ranging between 17% and 20%over the festive season compared to 2006. He said the mall had a target of 1.1 million visitors and he was optimistic the target had been exceeded, because on December 24, 58000 came to the centre alone.
Beacon Bay Retail Park centre manager Ursula Pape said their sales had not been analysed yet.
She said the retail park was busy and this was evident in the centre's parking area being consistently full.
Border-Kei Chamber of Business executive director, Les Holbrook estimated that festive season sales trends remained similar to last year.
Holbrook said the chamber's associates had not given feedback on how they performed during the festive season.
"It would not be surprising for sales growth to go the usual trend of seven to 17% of last year," Holbrook said.
Source: The Banking Association South Africa
Article via I-Net-Bridge
