UK retail footfall slumped last week after the severe weather kept shoppers at home, industry data showed on Monday.
According to retail consultancy Springboard, footfall to all retail destinations rose 5.5% between Sunday and Thursday. But as Storm Eunice made landfall, prompting the Met Office to issue a number of rare red alerts, footfall slumped 32% on Friday and 12.6% on Saturday.
As a result, footfall was down 3.8% over the week compared to the previous seven days. Within that, high streets saw footfall slide 7.2%, while retail parks recorded a 0.1% dip and shopping centres eased 0.5%.
Some of the largest declines were seen in areas worst affected by the weather, with footfall down 9.7% in Wales, 7.8% in the south west and off 5% in the north and Yorkshire.
Diane Wehrle, insights director at Springboard, said: “Unsurprisingly, footfall was majorly affected by the severe storms, which negated the positive impact at the start of the February school half-term break.
“Inevitably high streets felt the greatest effects of the weather, with a slightly stronger result in shopping centres – the vast majority of which offer shelter from the elements – and in retail parks, which are easy to access by car.”
For much of the country, schools were on half term last week, and Springboard said there had been “noticeable increases” in footfall in central London, regional cities and coastal towns between Monday and Thursday as a result. For the week as a whole, however, coastal towns recorded an 11.2% slump in footfall.
