With a week to go to Christmas, the good news is that tills are jingling, with the festive season shaping up to be a cracker for many gift retailers.
“Most Lark stores have been trading better than last year which is amazing,” confirms Priya Aurora-Crowe, co-owner of 19 Lark stores in London and Surrey. “The shoplifters have been incredibly persistent, but our customers have been as loyal as ever.”
Adds Jon May, co-owner of Mooch Gifts & Home in Bewdley and Stourport-on-Severn: “Last week was crazy! Realisation that Christmas was just over a week away dawned on a lot of people, with many leaving our shops with bags loaded with goodies. This year, our Christmas windows have certainly made a huge impact, with many new customers popping in for a ‘mooch’, attracted to our stores being lit up.”
Continues Jon: “We have also been overwhelmed with online orders, with Pet Hates’ Donald Trump selling like hot cakes. We sold nine in one day to separate people all over the UK! Fingers crossed this spending frenzy continues until Christmas and that the weather remains kind.”
At the three Nest stores in Leicester, owner Samantha Gibbs adds: “as predicted, Christmas has turned out to be very late, only gaining momentum after Black Friday. Customers have been really enjoying shopping in our stores though, and they are as busy as online which is really lovely and always warms my heart! However, because it’s such a late Christmas, repeat ordering is late, and while we will continue to re-order stock, it’s a shame that we won’t get as many re-orders to the stockists in as usual, but that’s the effect of such a drawn-out pre-Christmas sales period.”
Above: Mooch Gifts & Home’s eye-catching Christmas window.
