Spending is up and Grafton Street is busy for the traditional Christmas shopping day in Dublin.
December 8 is the Feast of the Immaculate Conception and the long established day when people travel to Dublin to do their Christmas shopping. Undeterred by the wet weather, shoppers are out in force on Grafton Street,
Stores were busy from early in the day and trade is reported to be very active.
Development manager of the Dublin City Centre Business Association (DCCBA) Tom Coffey expects about 200,000 people will come to shop in Dublin and they will most likely travel by car.
It is too early to know how much has been taken at the tills or how much money is in circulation. However,
If you look at the first couple of hours you're probably talking a figure of around 12% increase.
Tom Coffey estimates,
Around £800 million is in circulation and that will be spent in the Dublin area for Christmas.
He believes spending is back to where it was in early September 1992 prior to the financial crisis. Customers clearly have more money to spend, so it is up to the retailers to provide them with the choice, value and atmosphere they want,
I think they’re doing pretty well in the city centre at the moment.
An RTÉ News report broadcast on 8 December 1993. The reporter is Kevin McDonald.
