Bumper takings as millions hit Boxing Day sales

Millions are expected to hit the high street today and spend as much as £3.74 billion in the most hotly-anticipated shopping day of the year.

But there were reports of violent clashes at some stores, and shoppers fled “for their lives” after a fight believed to involve a machete erupted among youths at a shopping centre in Bromley, south London.

Neil Carter, centre manager at Whiteley Shopping Centre, said: ‘We have had a fabulous start to the post- Christmas sales, with footfall 45 per cent ahead of Boxing Day 2014 and queues forming from 5am.

Crowds started queuing from 1am, braving the wind and rain to get their hands on the best deals.

Jace Tyrrell, chief executive of New West End Company, which represents 600 retailers in Bond Street, Regent Street and Oxford Street, said wealthy foreign tourists were fuelling bumper sales.

VoucherCodes managing director Claire Davenport said: “While pre-Christmas sale dates have soared in popularity over the last couple of years, it seems they are yet to take over our more traditional savings days, with many retailers choosing to go all out on Boxing Day, running deals as early as Christmas Day right through to the start of the New Year”.

“He said: “£100 million is the target and we are in line to do that as forecast.

He said: “Be very careful about tearing open the packaging on anything”.

The first bargain-hunters through the door headed straight for the luxury fashion section.

“Traditionally it is the first few hours of the day which are the busiest, but this year the high volumes of footfall shifted to later on in the day from up 0.8% in the hours leading to 12pm to a dramatic increase of 6.3% in the hours leading to 5pm”.

Michaela Moore, general manager at Birmingham’s Bullring, said she was expecting about 200,000 people to come to the shopping centre on Saturday in search of deals.

He said: ” At peak times, we’ve seen Welsh shoppers spend around £2 million a day at St David’s, and over one million visitors a week.

“We really came for the experience – and because I’m a bit insane – but you only live once”.

“We got here about 4.30am and there was a queue by that time”.

Daniel Graham, from Australia, was out shopping with friends who were hoping to snap up a bargain at Selfridges.

She said: “I have got a lot of children’s clothes from Next, Fenwicks and Monsoon”.

However, online retailers also got in on the action, with online sales set to be up 22 per cent on a year ago to £856 million, according to data firm Experian and online retailing trade association IMRG. Retailers throughout the country saw a boost in revenues during the weekend after Christmas both in stores and online.

The Broadway was the UK’s biggest retail development of 2015 when the £260 million centre opened earlier this year following a tortuous decade-long saga. It’s been really busy in the centre and there are still some fantastic discounts on offer.