Retailers are finding it difficult to keep this year's must have gifts on the shelves
With day-to-day trading of constant interest to retailers, retail-week.com is interviewing a number of the Mall center managers during the last week of this year's Christmas shopping period.

This series of floor level reports starts with the Mall Falkirk general manager David Pierotti.

He said 'This year Mall sales and footfall has been steady and consistent with increases on both around the 2.5 per cent to 3.5 per cent mark when compared like-for-like. Instore offers, selected markdowns and giveaways are common with most retailers.

Retailers such as Etams, D2, Icon and Internationale launched their sale in store on Friday 17th with others expected to follow each day leading up to Christmas Eve. All retailers are expected to be in full-blown sale mode well before the 24th.

Stock in store availability is a concern on selected 2004 'must haves 'such as X-BOX, PS2 and Robosapien with deliveries sold out within hours.

Any Bratz range lines are proving very popular this year with the younger girls with Dad getting the Smart casual shirt instead of the usual jumper or slippers and socks.

Mum this year like most is still getting Satin or Silk pyjamas or the usual bottle of perfume Dad thinks she likes.

The recent introduction of MALL TV has definitely helped to promote our retailers and the festive sales period, this new sales driver is proving very popular with the Malls store managers.'