Turning off the Christmas lights and closing the super stores made no difference. Those who were confused about the weekend commercial centre shutdowns and turned up only to find them all closed, certainly made up for it yesterday.
With presents for Three King's Day still to purchase not to mention all of the festive food to buy, the commercial centres were packed yesterday with five kilometre tailbacks as people, not having been able to shop at their leisure over the weekend, were flocking to the retail parks.
I guess the numbers will speak for themselves but I get the impression the local authorities are trying to be seen to be doing things as opposed to sensibly thinking about what they are really doing and what the consequences will be. Closing bars at 6 and only opening terraces, certainly has not stopped hordes of people bracing the cold and packing out the terraces during the day for longer than usual lunches, most people are still on holiday. It could be suggested that there is a form of so-called herding going on while the health service and opposition political parties complain about the slow roll out of the vaccine.
Thousands of people may well have been kept apart over the weekend unable to go shopping, but they grasped the last chance yesterday and probably will again this morning ahead of tonight’s celebrations and again when the winter sales start later this week.
Plus, turning off the Xmas lights with no warning was a bit of a miserable touch to be honest.