Trading over the coming Easter weekend will be “unrecognisable” due to the government’s mandated lockdown and closure of non-essential stores, according to data from Springboard.
Retail footfall across the country has plummetted since the government made the decision to close all non-essential stores on March 23 and will have a deleterious effect on trading over the long weekend.
Footfall across retail destinations dropped 75.1% in the week beginning March 22 and by 81.4% last week, which Springboard said indicated the government’s lockdown was working.
However, the warmer weather over the weekend bought an “alarming” uplift with footfall up 9.5% on Saturday and 21.3% on Sunday as consumers “appeared to defy social distancing measures in favour of enjoying the warmest weekend of the year”.
The uplift was particularly marked in London, which saw a 51.4% jump and in other large cities.
Springboard questioned whether, with the warm weather set to persist over the four-day Easter weekend, the government will need to bring in “further measures… to curtail this movement”.
Easter weekend is seen as the second most important trading period of the year, after Christmas, and Springboard said the damage the lockdown and store closures will have on sales over the coming period “cannot be overestimated”.
Springboard insight director Diane Wehrle said: “It is impossible to draw any real comparison between Easter this year and Easter in preceding years – we have never been beset with such swathing restrictions that have impacted the entire economy and restricted spending so comprehensively.”
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