Tag Archives: Christmas

Argos’ 2018 Christmas advert made its debut last Thursday (November 1) during primetime ad breaks during ‘Coronation Street’ on ITV and ‘Gogglebox’ on Channel 4. The ad features the ‘Christmas fool’ – an impish creature that causes chaos about the house as anxious families try to put the finishing touches …

Total sales excluding fuel were down 0.5% at Waitrose & Parners last week (to Saturday October 20) compared with the same week last year. Wim Van Aalst, supply chain director of the supermarket retailer, said: “Customers are busy planning for forthcoming seasonal celebrations with Halloween and Christmas grocery sales both …

Sainsbury’s and Argos are recruiting 11,500 temporary colleagues to work for them during the Black Friday and Christmas periods. A total of 5,500 jobs are available at Sainsbury’s and 6,000 at Argos. Both retailers are also offering extra hours to colleagues who may want extra work in the run-up to …

John Lewis predicts 2018 will be the Year of the Rainbow Christmas tree. The department store group said: ‘Filled with must-have baubles, this imaginative look is the perfect way to combine all seven colour collections from John Lewis this season. To ensure your festive look is #trending, recreate the ombre …

Waitrose has revealed details of its ‘Heston from Waitrose’ range for Christmas 2018. The supermarket chain said its ambassador Heston Blumenthal OBE ‘is back with his festive favourites, along with exciting new additions inspired by the old British pastime of wassailing’. The multi-award-winning chef explained: “Dating back to the 16th …

December footfall decreased sharply by 3.5% year-on-year, which is the biggest decline since March 2013, according to figures released by the British Retail Consortium (BRC) and Springboard. Covering the five weeks from November 26 to December 30, the BRC-Springboard footfall and vacancies monitor shows that all regions showed a drop in …

ProCook has reported that its headline sales grew by 28% in the eight weeks of peak trading (incorporating Black Friday, the Christmas build-up and post-Christmas Sale). The result was driven by a 35% rise in online sales and 17% lift in retail sales, with like-for-like sales up 12.5%. The housewares …

British shoppers spent almost £8.5 billion on credit cards over the festive season, according to a survey by price comparison and switching service uSwitch. The research was carried out online between November 8 and November 16 among a sample of 4,024 adults. When asked ‘if you intend to borrow, how …

Shelly Lochhead is set to be Waitrose’s busiest checkout person in the country tomorrow (Saturday December 23), which will be Britain’s busiest shopping day of the year. Based on previous festive sales/sq ft of shop selling space calculations, Waitrose has forecast that Shelly’s shop in Cambridge is likely to be …

Consumers are not only deferring shopping trips until the last minute, but are leaving it even later than last year to finish their Christmas purchases. According to data from retail intelligence expert Springboard, footfall between Sunday (December 17) and Wednesday (December 20) rose by 20.3% from the same four days …