Miracle on George St: the stars align for charity lottery December 17, 2015 It’s not unusual for Edinburgh’s George Street to be teeming with people at this time of year. But last month, it was brought to a standstill, not by Christmas shoppers, but the most famous “George” in the world. Double Oscar-winner George Clooney (sorry, Prince George) was in town to drop into the offices of People’s [...]
Black Friday UK 2015: Asda might be right to scale back its bargains on 27 November – but shoppers will still expect the deals November 10, 2015 Last year Black Friday broke the internet. Well, not quite; but it did break the websites of many UK retailers which struggled to cope with demand. In stores the occasion created Walking Dead type scenes, with hoards of shoppers frantically clawing for the best bargains. Given that these are sure signs that the event – [...]
Retailers should “play Black Friday down”, warns John Lewis boss October 19, 2015 The boss of John Lewis – one of the UK's most vocal supporters of Black Friday – has urged other retailers to “play it down” in future years after the sales bonanza led to havoc on the high street. Although the business reported record sales for the week in which Black Friday (November 28) [...]
Christmas party shoes give Kurt Geiger a boost as sales rise 26pc January 11, 2015 Footwear and accessories retailer Kurt Geiger reported a bumper Christmas yesterday, announcing 14 per cent growth in like-for-like sales for the 2014 festive period. Party shoes led the way, with footwear in its occasion category enjoying an increase in sales of 26 per cent and Kurt Geiger’s handbags proved a popular gift, with sales up [...]
Christmas in July? A million Brits have already finished their festive season shopping July 23, 2015 It's only July, but more than a million Brits have already finished their shopping for Christmas, which is still five whole months away. It's not just a strange minority that already have the festive season wrapped up though. They may not have finalised everything quite yet, but more than a third of the country have, [...]
Betting suspended on Queen abdicating during her Christmas broadcast after “unusual” bets placed at Coral December 17, 2014 Bookmakers Coral has suspended betting on whether the Queen will announce her abdication in her Christmas Day broadcast after a number of “unusual” bets were placed today. A spokesman told City A.M a handful of different bets had been made within half an hour of each other – prompting the team to question whether [...]
Sainsbury’s Christmas advert 2014: Surprise WWI centenary themed TV ad steals John Lewis festive video crown November 13, 2014 Has Sainsbury's managed to steal John Lewis's crown for best Christmas advert of the year? The supermarket has created a Christmas ad just as touching, heartfelt, and beautifully told as John Lewis’ Monty the penguin, but with a far deeper sentiment. The three minute video, created with ad agency AMV BBDO, eschews Christmas trees and [...]
Cyber Monday 2015 UK: Amazon has some truly pointless, unwanted and awful lightning deals – here’s eight of them November 30, 2015 Is sale season really all it's cracked up to be? Everyone loves bagging a bargain, and what better time to do that than the bonanza time of the year that is Black Friday and Cyber Monday. King of the deals days is Amazon, which far from retreating from the pre-Christmas sales period like other shops (online and [...]
Black Friday 2015: Hoping to avoid Black Eye Friday? The key is preparation, preparation, preparation November 12, 2015 It is universally accepted that the scale of Black Friday last year was a surprise. It was the Eric Morecambe of retail outcomes – all the orders came in just not necessarily in the right order. As ever, you saw some retailers react better than others and companies’ intuitive values took over. What comes first? [...]
City Link: Union calls on Vince Cable to nationalise company and save 2,000 jobs December 28, 2014 Vince Cable has been urged to step in to save 2,000 people from losing their jobs on new year’s eve. The National Union of Rail, Maritime and Transport Workers (RMT) said that it had been infromed by administrators that over 2,000 workers of stricken parcel delivery firm City Link may face redundency and urged [...]