Shops gear up for Christmas rush

With pics of Ian Kirkpatrick and Catherine Williams, of The Yankee Shop

Swansea’s busy Quadrant Shopping Centre is expecting well over a million shoppers through its doors in December.

Retailers are in the middle of their busiest month of the year in the run-up to Christmas with footfall approaching 300,000 a week and total sales for December of over £75 million.

It’s a second Christmas in the Quadrant for The Yankee Shop where owner Catherine Williams was well prepared after being overwhelmed by the demand for her scented candles last year.

She’s still surprised by the number of customers and she said, as she manned the till: “We’re finding queues here waiting for us in the morning and there are queues through the day.

“Last year we sold three times what we would normally in a month and it’s been even busier this Christmas – we’re getting daily deliveries of five pallets of stock.

“We’ve now got five stores and a pop-up stand in the city centre and we’re busy at every one so it’s going very well.”

Chocolates and Christmas are a potent combination and one that works for Thorntons where supervisor Karen Tyler said: “Business is really picking up well and we’re very busy.

“Our Continental selection is a big seller but we have lots of offers on and they’re going very well.”

Christmas parties are in full swing and at fashion store Quiz they’re well placed to cater for the demand as assistant manager Jayne Thomas said: “We’re hectic and doing well compared to last year with people looking for their party outfits.

“People still want a bit of sparkle at Christmas and that’s perfect for us and we’re perfect for them because we’ve got a really good range of partywear and while you can get things on line, they do like to come and try things on.

“There’s a really good atmosphere in the Quadrant as well and we enjoy that too with a good buzz and we can nip out in our breaks and get some of our own Christmas shopping done here as well.”

Ian Kirkpatrick, Manager of the Quadrant Shopping Centre, said: “This is a key time for retailers and we’re having a busy month.

“We would expect over a million shoppers in the Centre and that’s something like 30 per cent more than in an average month.

“Our Mr X Appeal has continued to go very well with people being very generous in donating toys and gifts as well as making their own purchases.

“We’re open eight ‘til eight Monday to Wednesday next week to cater for those we leave it late and then we’ll be ready for an 8am start on Boxing Day and through the month we would expect to turn over more than £75 million here.”