Stores set for £13bn sales bonanza

SHOPPERS are today launching what is expected to be their biggest ever winter sales spending spree with financial analysts predicting a £13bn bonanza. Major retail centres across the country are expecting tens of thousands of customers as a record number of stores open.

The predicted spending in the coming weeks works out at about £260 for every man, woman and child in Britain. Retail chiefs were stunned as the levels of spending before Christmas continued on Boxing Day, despite growing gloom in economies around the world.

Lower mortgage rates and winter holidays missed in the aftermath of the 11 September terrorist attacks contributed to the boom. Queues formed in the early hours outside the Next store in London's Kensington High Street for the 6am start of its sale.

Casino cashier Anne Mattl, 44, joined the throng straight from work at 5am. 'After 11 September you realise life is too short so you might as well make the most of it. I'm going to spend, spend, spend. So far I have spent £250 in Next and I plan to spend as much as I can,' she said.

Marks & Spencer lured many shoppers out Boxing Day. Thousands passed through the doors of the 16 of its stores which were open. Dixons in London's Oxford Street saw 100 people queuing when the shop opened at 11am. Manager Jayesh Bhagwandas said: 'We were packed shoulder to shoulder. It was one the busiest Boxing Days ever.' David Wilson of Virgin Megastore in Oxford Street, said: 'It's been brilliant and we are definitely taking more than last year.'

At least 110,000 people packed into the Trafford Centre in Manchester, one of Britain's biggest shopping complexes. Manager Andy Orr said 750 cars were arriving every 10 minutes. Department store group John Lewis, which is starting its clearance sales today, enjoyed a record week at the start of the month. Supermarkets chain Tesco, which is cutting the cost of non-food products today, took its highest number of orders yet over the internet.

The British Retail Consortium said it is clear shoppers are continuing to ignore 'the doom and gloom prophets'.

Richard Hyman, chairman at retail analyst Verdict, said shoppers are taking advantage of the low rate of interest which is now at four%. It puts more money into people's pockets because of low mortgage repayments. Secondly, as interest rates are so low, people are thinking, what's the point of putting money into a savings account?'

Hyman said shoppers also seemed to simply want to enjoy themselves after the tragedy of 11 September. 'It has been such an awful year, I really think it's changed the way people view things,' he said.