Shopping centres and high streets almost deserted as Brits shun Black Friday rush

SHOPPING centres were nearly deserted yesterday as spending-savvy Brits shunned Black Friday deals.

Impulse buying of luxury items was said to be in decline as bargain-hunters took a more cautious approach

Some shoppers also criticised the fact that deals were no longer confined to a day — with some retailers launching their Black Friday offers last week and others running deals all through the month.

The empty malls and high streets marks a huge shift from previous years when stampedes were seen across the country.

One mall at Westfield shopping centre in Stratford, East London, got off to a very slow start and was pictured looking almost empty.

The huge drop in enthusiasm was also laid bare at Britain's shopping hub in Oxford Street, central London.

Pictures from 2019 showed busy crowds milling the street outside stores, but yesterday a Vodafone store decorated with black balloons was snapped with just one shopper looking in.

There was a 13 per cent drop in Black Friday deals searches compared with previous years, analysis by Alvarez & Marsal consultants found.

A&M head of retail and consumer Erin Brookes said: “There’s clearly a reduced sense of urgency as shoppers continue to battle with cost-of-living pressures and rethink how they prioritise their spending.”

Mairi Fairley, a partner at OC&C Strategy Consultants, said there had been “less impulse buying and more planned purchases than previous years”.

She added: "Shoppers will be on the hunt for deals for long-needed products rather than spontaneously buying a luxury item just because it is on sale.”

But there was still a small increase in typical spending.

NatWest said there had been 6.66 million transactions as of 5pm yesterday, 11 per cent higher than a typical Friday.

The early estimate for Black Friday spend was £5.6billion — a drop from £7.1billion last year, according to audit giant PwC.

Almost £8.7billion  is expected to be spent between Friday morning and Monday night, according to analysis by GlobalData for Vouchercodes.

That is  just 0.4 per cent  up on last year, compared with non-food inflation of 3.4 per cent.

Meanwhile, more than 1,000 Amazon workers walked out of the online giant’s warehouse in Coventry in a long-running dispute over pay and conditions.

A protest was also held outside head office in London on what is one of its busiest shopping days.