Retailers hope ‘panic weekend’ will bring Christmas cheer to UK sales | Retail industry
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/20/retailers-hope-weekend-will-bring-christmas-cheer-uk-sales
Posted by JackStrawWitchita
Retailers hope ‘panic weekend’ will bring Christmas cheer to UK sales | Retail industry
https://www.theguardian.com/business/2025/dec/20/retailers-hope-weekend-will-bring-christmas-cheer-uk-sales
Posted by JackStrawWitchita
35 Comments
Keep hoping. I think most of us are absolutely bored of being fleeced at every chance companies and the government get.
Give your staff a few days off too, show the public that you care about more than pure profit margins.
I haven’t bought anything special. As a family we’re having chcken because turkeys have been stupidly priced this year. We don’t do gifts anymore as we’re way too old for that.
Also from what I can see most of the Christmas gift products on sale are nothing more that Temu or Ali Express stuff with a 1000% markup.
The retailers can go shove it this year. We’ll be fine.
I am a “rep” for a food company, so I visit supermarkets all the time. I dont visit all of but of the ones I do visit, I would say tesco is doing far better than the others.
Physical retail generally (non food) is dying generally, and no amount of Christmas spirit is going to revive it. More over costs are only going up and there is no signs of a better economy for the vast majority.
Its also to the point where even if people had a good year, they are so used to having a new crisis every 6 months their default is to save what they can, not spend it.
Given the price of everything, instead of our normal secret Santa my family have decided to all just give one person £30 and let them put it towards whatever it is they need.
Instead of the traditional turkey roast with all the trimmings, my parents are only making their traditional home dishes as it’s actually a lot cheaper to spread among many people. Whereas with a turkey, or even a chicken, we’d have to spend a lot more on meat.
I think everyone just has a bit of “cost fatigue”. Wages aren’t up, price of everything is up, can’t leave a tube station without 500 charities and scammers also asking you for money. I’m personally very fed up of being rinsed for money at every turn.
If people aren’t buying it’s either because they want it but can’t afford it, lower your prices or pay your workers more. They have the money but don’t want what you’re selling. In that case innovation is key instead of being a temu middle man selling tat another possibility is people aren’t waiting to Christmas to get something they want as much anymore in which case that’s probably good so you have cash flow in other months instead of hoping people panic buy in December. Come up with something new do something different. People whinge about benefits and people being entitled. Is there anything more entitled than a business person? Compete for once in your life instead of colluding and price gouging.
Judging by the number couriers flying about online shopping is doing well.
Can’t blame people for not wanting to venture to the city centre or shopping malls. Even if you want to nip to your local supermarket for something, it has become a pain on the arse. It takes forever to get there due to the traffic and traffic systems, when you get there people seem to have lost all semblance of common sense, and then you have the journey back.
Then you have to pay a fortune for parking.
Popped out to grab some bits and I was surprised how quiet it was. I was expecting to be elbow to elbow, and seeing fist fighting grannies over the last bag of spuds. Instead it felt no different to a normal Saturday (or potentially even a bit quieter as Christmas isn’t till Thursday).
When I was in Savers one thing I did notice is lots of gift sets still about, but the individual versions were sold out. I should imagine people have wised up and instead of spending stupid money on sets people don’t use and just getting the bits people want/use for less.
Did all mine last week – either a combo of online shopping or knowing what people wanted and headed into town early evening to get them. Town was quiet.
Ordered the food a few weeks back. Nothing special. It all feels rather quiet this year, which I quite like.
People don’t have money and that is all there is to it.
People are barely coping. It feels like we’re in a recession even if we’re not in one. The government has done nothing to cheer the economy on. I think most people this Christmas will quietly cope. Maybe next Christmas will be better.
If they’re meaning this weekend, then they might be disappointed – it felt distinctly quiet in Meadowhall this morning (9.30 to 11.30) compared to what I was expecting to be dealing with
It’s not just about people not having the money but also the people with a little bit of cash to splash (even if modestly) just looking at the products and thinking that it doesn’t justify the cost/spending.
Had to get some baby bits from Sainsbury’s this morning and the shop was a lot quieter than most weekends. Every year as well I’ve splashed out on twiglets, cheese, alcohol and the whole shebang but this year I’m settling for a 6 pack of iron bru and a tube of pringles.
The county council decided to make us pay for parking on our High Street. People stopped parking there, so rather than decrease the charge or increase the amount of time that was free, they reduced the ‘free’ time to 20 minutes and increased the minimum charge.
End result is that the High Street is deserted, and even the supermarket there is well nigh empty most of the time.
>Experts said it was likely that consumers had been holding off purchasing their Christmas items until they had a clearer picture of their own finances in light of the budget
Yes, clearly the average person in the UK sits on the edge of their seat, waiting to digest the budget before making Christmas purchases…
I know this post will have you think otherwise, but I went out today and my local shopping centre was heaving at 10.30am, by the time I left at 12pm almost every shop was packed with people shopping.
This post will have you believe your local high street is a ghost town.
I’ve been very modest with the Christmas spends this year, I’d love to spoil my mum and dad and niece and nephews with amazing gifts but I just can’t afford it, so I’ve done my best with what I’ve got.
At the end of the day buying shit is not what’s important, I relish spending time with my family especially when I get to see aunts and cousins I seldomly see otherwise!l because they live so far away!
Working in a supermarket and this year it feels like hasn’t been anywhere near as busy as it had in past years.
So much of it has gone to aliexpress, amazon and temu this year. No de minimise and lax digital services tax leaves UK companies on a very unlevelled playing field
I’m lucky that I get a £50 voucher and £50 cash from my workplace, so we’ll use that on food.
But we have cut back over the last few years, get the kids some bits but we don’t bother with each other.
Getting stitched up on costs for virtually everything and higher taxes.
I’m happy with my small family being healthy.
I expect in the new year they will announce record profits.
Big chains hoping for bigger profits for their shareholders is more accurate.
Work in retail and the beginning of the month was way more chaotic than today, I think most people are done early to avoid ‘panoc weekend’.
My gifts for people are a work in progress that unexpectedly ran out of funding thanks to work giving me the festive gift of redundancy last week. No shops will be getting my business online or offline this year.
Don;’t think this will be the case, Southampton for example was absolutely dead today
Kept being told to watch out for a big rush and queues, nothing different to a normal Saturday. No one is rushing out to keep the capitalist happy this holiday.
Nope sorry, bought all my stuff cheaper online early.
Between rising prices for literally everything, rising taxes and stagnant wages… nobody has any bloody money left lmao
That’s what happen when you squeeze the middle class to the point of they feel no longer middle class. Speaking to family and colleagues they have no choice to cut back so they can have experiences over material things that’s don’t seem to last like they used to.
That’s what happen when you squeeze the middle class to the point they feel no longer middle class. Speaking to family and colleagues they have no choice to cut back so they can have experiences over material things that’s don’t seem to last like they used to.
Hum, retailers (non food) I have spoken to are quite happy with their lfl numbers. Confidence is down which is true but often this means consumers put off large discretionary spend (like cars, holidays) but then end up treating themselves to clothes / games / home (leisure retail spending)..
We’ll see in January I guess.
In a bid to keep costs down I’ve been trying to do an ‘almost’ net zero cash flow Christmas.
I’ve saved up all my cashback and points throughout the year. Sold some old toys and random stuff kicking around the house.
Food shop coming on Tuesday will tip me over a bit and i’ve probably spent about half I did last year as I’ve cut down on a lot on unnecessary crap. But I finally feel like I’m not starting January in a big black hole.
My emergy supplier told me my dd was going up 30 quid the other week so that I could “be a momth in credit just in case”, despite already being 150 quid in credit. You think I have the brass to spunk out on surprise presents?
A lot of shoppers know that in a couple of days all the Xmas stock is going to be reduced to clear. So unless they are desperate for a last minute Xmas gift or food. They are not going to buy anything they don’t need.
Uhh, with what money? I’ve been at £0 remaining on my overdraft for the last 2 weeks – what are these retailers expecting me to use to pay them?
This has been the worst year for over-priced tat with shops competing to sell the same crap.
Perhaps we’ve reached peak “made in china” but something has to give. The quality of good is shockingly bad and the variety is highly diminished.
Workers paid the bare minimum
Wages going the least far in living memory
Most people just coping on their finances at the moment
Less free cash in the economy
Less to spend
Companies must have a record year every year
So people’s employment will be the sacrifice come January