Springboard finds little change in pedestrian traffic
There was little change in footfall last week from the previous, with a flat result of 0.0 per cent, with just slight variations visible between types of location visited. There was a much more pronounced difference in the year on year result, which saw an overall drop of -2.6 per cent despite an increase in visits to retail parks of +0.6 per cent. This is a slight worsening upon the results of the same week last year which saw footfall increase against the previous week by +0.8 per cent but drop annually by -2.0 per cent.
The inclement weather is likely to have impacted the high street, with an annual change of -3.7 per cent as numbers fell from Tuesday and declined in increasing magnitude throughout the week as the strength of Storm Ali increased. That said, both retail parks and shopping centres increased in numbers last week against the previous, with both rising +0.8 per cent. but whilst retail parks rose against the week in all areas except the South West which dropped just -1.2 per cent, shopping centre results were less comprehensive with results a 50/50 split in positive and negative regional performance with numbers ranging between -1.3 per cent in the East to +4.2 per cent in the West Midlands. Annually shopping centre numbers were on par with those of the high street, with a result of -3.4 per cent for the week, but unlike high streets, the decline was spread evenly throughout the week with a peak of just -2.2 per cent on Monday.
