Shropshire centres boosted by festive shopping rise

The number of people visiting Shrewsbury's main shopping centre was almost 20 per cent up on the final Saturday before Christmas compared with the same day last year, bosses revealed this afternoon.

More than 50,000 shoppers passed through the doors of the Darwin Centre on Saturday compared to 42,500 people on the final Saturday before Christmas, traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year, 12 months ago.

The figures were released as shoppers were out in force today on what experts predicted to now be the busiest shopping day.

Credit card firm Visa said it expected to process more than 33 million transactions worth more than £1.5 billion, an increase of eight per cent compared with the same period last year.

Last-minute shoppers were forecast to spend more than £1 million every minute and nearly £18,000 a second on their Visa cards. Shrewsbury's Pride Hill Centre reported improved footfall figures for last Saturday, with 27,000 people passing through the doors.

This was up about 12 per cent on the equivalent day last year.

Last year trade was hit by snowfall but with milder conditions shoppers have returned to the high street.

In total, nearly 250,000 people passed through the two shopping centres.

Russell Hall, operations manager for the Shrewsbury Shopping Centres, said: "It seems to be going very well and we're very encouraged by the footfall figures."

Meanwhile, today Tesco in Harlescott, Shrewsbury, reported takings up by 80 per cent yesterday when compared with an average Thursday.

The Asda store in Old Potts Way reported footfall about 40 per cent higher than on a normal week.