Springboard: Heavy Rain And Train Strikes Hit Retail Footfall

Springboard has published retail footfall data for week 33 (17/08 - 23/08) advising that the heavy rain and train strikes impacted footfall, especially across high streets.

Springboard High Street Index - Week 33 2022

2022 vs 2021 = +12.3%

2022 vs 2019 = -19.3%

Week-on-week = -2.9%

Springboard's Marketing and Insights Director, Diane Wehrle, said:

The heavy rain during last week, in combination train strikes, affected footfall across UK retail destinations, although it was only in high streets where footfall declined from the week before.  Footfall declined on every day up until and including Thursday, and the heavy rain at the front end of the week meant that shoppers headed indoors to shopping centres and for the convenience of retail parks. 

It was clear that the train strike on Thursday led to employees working from home; footfall in Central London, Springboard's Back to the Office Benchmark and in city centres across the UK all declined, whilst in market towns and in Outer London - which typically benefit from home working - footfall rose.

From Friday onwards footfall rose, but this was based on a low comparable due to exceptionally hot weather deterring shoppers from visiting retail destinations in the previous week.

Source : Springboard

Image : Dave Colman / shutterstock.com (2169482713)

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