Shops set for Christmas Eve rush

Dec 24 2009

More than 13 million people are set to make a last-minute dash to the shops for the traditional spectacle of Christmas Eve panic-buying.

Research from Sainsbury's Credit Cards claims 13.3 million will descend on the high street as the countdown to Christmas Day draws to a close.

The findings indicate that 19% of adults intend to do some of their Christmas shopping, spending around £1.37 billion.

This is equivalent to £57 million an hour or £951,000 per minute.

In total, around 7% of people's festive spending will take place on Christmas Eve.

But 1.53 million people intend to do between 91% and 100% of their Christmas shopping then.

Stuart McKeggie, head of Sainsbury's Credit Cards, said: "Once again there looks set to be a stampede of shoppers on Christmas Eve as many people leave their shopping to the last minute before Christmas.

"In these prudent times, we believe people are looking at ways to stretch their budgets and take advantage of some of the great deals on the high street and in supermarkets particularly."

Men are more likely to leave some of their Christmas shopping until the last minute, with 19% saying they would be doing some festive shopping on Christmas Eve, compared with 18% of women.