Despite additional restrictions being introduced in the middle of December as the omicron variant of covid-19 arrived in the island, shoppers took to the streets to enjoy live music and charitable stalls and to support locally-based retailers.
“Footfall has been pretty good, especially during the late nights,” said Jonathan Creasey, who is also a Director of Creasey’s.
“The atmosphere is always very good, which attracts more and more people.
“We had one really wet late-night shopping night, which is a shame, and it was clearly harder to get people in the Christmas mood and come out and shop. But we really tried to make sure we [had] a good number of musicians and a good number of community stalls, whether that’s charity or young enterprise or something like that.”
Mr Creasey said that street entertainers appreciated late-night shopping having experienced the cancellation of so many events due to the pandemic.
“Because this is an open air event effectively, they were able to come out and get some donations in some form or other.”
Pictured: After shoppers had gone home following the last of four late shopping nights in Town, retailers reflected on how the December tradition continues to provide them with a pre-Christmas boost in challenging times for their sector.
Mr Creasey said late-night shopping is a great way to promote the ‘buy local’ ethos.
“The buy local message has never gone away and it shouldn’t be off the table,” he said. “It’s about keeping the money recycling in our economy.”
In Guernsey – unlike in Jersey – the period immediately before Christmas was affected by advice from the States for people to work from home where they could. This inevitably reduced the number of people in Town during the day.
“The big difference this year was footfall during the day in Town with a number of offices closed to allow home working,” said Mr Creasey.
“The lunchtime footfall that many retailers would benefit from just wasn’t there.
“If working from home is set to continue, I think we need to promote Town slightly differently, and get people to still make the effort to come into Town to do their shopping.”
Mr Creasey said that people need additional reasons to go into Town and late-night shopping is a good example.
“Some of it is convenience, but some of it is the experience of being in Town and being around other people. If there’s some sort of artwork or theatre group performing or musicians performing, it just adds to the vibrancy of it.”
The uncertainty around covid-19 post-Christmas means that many retailers now face an anxious start to the New Year.