Shoppers Enjoy 'Panic Saturday' Boost

Shopping centres around Scotland enjoyed a brisk day's trade as people flocked to the stores for Christmas bargains on Panic Saturday''. High street spending across the UK was set to hit £1.2 billion today on what, for many shops, will be their busiest weekend of the year. Although exact footfall numbers have not yet been confirmed, shopping centres spoke of large crowds through the doors on one of their most significant days for business. At intu Braehead shopping centre in Glasgow, general manager Gary Turnbull said:It's amazing the appetite people have for shopping at Christmas. We've been open to midnight all this week and will be again, up to December 23, but still the crowds of shoppers just keep coming." Today has been extremely busy, although we have coped well with extra staff on duty directing cars to available spaces in our free car parks."Santa's elves must be working overtime and sending out for more Christmas paper with all the gifts they need to wrap, considering the massive amount of presents people have been buying at intu Braehead.'' In Aberdeen, the Union Square centre has been experiencing a really busy weekend''. General manager Ryan Manson said:We've extended our opening hours and have 1,700 car parking places to make shopping easier for our visitors." We've seen sales in jewellery, fashion, health and beauty increase and expect to see a lot of panic buying up until Christmas.'' A call handler at the city's Bon Accord & St Nicholas mall said it had beenbusy, busy, busy'' all day. And in Glasgow's Silverburn shopping centre, bosses said there were lots of contented customers. General manager David Pierotti said: We've had lots of happy visitors through our doors this weekend and the mall has a great atmosphere as shoppers pick up last minute gifts."We've extended our opening hours so visitors can visit the mall at a time of their convenience, there's 4,500 free parking spaces and our stores have employed 100 extra staff which has helped with queues and customer service in the shops.'' Across Britain today, 13 million consumers were set to spend 32.1 million for every minute the shops were open on last-minute gifts and groceries at an average of £92.31 per person, according to a report by the Centre for Retail Research (CRR).