Galway Christmas spend rises – in line with national average

Spending in Galway pre and post Christmas appears to be on a par with the national trend – only just marginally higher than the previous year.

While footfall was up in both the city and towns around County Galway, the actual spend didn’t match the number of people who hit the shops in the last days before Christmas.

And though there was evidence of the same enthusiasm for the post Christmas sales, the dice was in the customers’ favour as retailers offered significant discounts across the board.

Retail Excellence Ireland (REI), which surveyed 300 retailers across the country, noted that despite the positive economic outlook, consumer spending had been softer than expected and was only marginally up on the same period last year. As a result, retailers were offering major discounts post Christmas.

Discount or no discount, a number of shops will always attract a sales crowd because of gift cards and vouchers bought there as Christmas presents.

One of the most popular is Brown Thomas and the Interim General Manager for their Galway store, Damien Deasy, reported a great pre Christmas trade and a brisk start to their sales.

“We were very happy with our Christmas trade and of course, shoppers were in again on St Stephen’s Day using up their gift cards, particularly in accessories. Michael Kors is a very popular brand in our Galway store. Michael Kors handbags were great bargains and sold well. Ladies wear also did well,” he added.

Both Anthony Ryans in Shop Street and its Home Store in Lombard Street were hives of activity since St Stephen’s Day when their sale started. Staff were run off their feet in all departments but as in previous years, the mens department and electrical goods in the Home Store were the busiest.

Michael Ward of Michael Wards in Ballinasloe reported a good Christmas trade thanks to their brands in both mens and womens fashions. However, the store is phasing out the womens side of the business by the end of January which meant there were up to 70% discounts on ladieswear during their sale and 20% in menswear.

He conceded that there wasn’t a huge increase this year on what people spent with him last year but was satisfied overall with the Christmas and sales to date.

Beattys in Loughrea is another popular store which draws the sales crowds and there were at least 35 people queuing up outside their shop door at noon on Saturday morning for the start of their sale.

See full story in this week’s Connacht Tribune – in the shops on New Year’s Eve