Thousands of bargain hunters are expected to flock to Warrington’s Golden Square Shopping Centre on Black Friday.
The discount day – held this year on November 27 – is renowned for massive markdowns and incredible offers, and provides a huge pre-Christmas boost for the centre’s 140 retailers.
With new stores opening and the centre going from strength to strength, managers are predicting an even greater sales surge than last year’s event, which saw a 14 per cent increase in footfall on Black Friday alone.
Golden Square Shopping Centre director Ian Cox.
This year the centre will open from 8am until 8pm, with free parking for shoppers, said Golden Square Shopping Centre director Ian Cox.
“Last year Black Friday had a huge impact on our visitor numbers and as a retail phenomenon the event is growing in popularity with more and more brands taking part,” said Ian.
“Over the course of 2014 we welcomed over 12.7 million customers – half a million more than the year before – which was partially down to the boost Black Friday gave to our stores, combined with the great line up of festive events in the run up to Christmas.”
Ian added: “We expect it to be even more attractive to shoppers this year as we have several new additions. Shoppers are always drawn by our brilliant range of stores and convenient location”.
In recent months the 675,000 sq ft centre has added a Select fashion store, a new HMV and jewellery boutique Polyanna while Vodafone has undergone a major revamp and renovation.
With these new developments alongside existing key high street names such as Debenhams, M&S, Primark and fashion favourites H&M, Topshop and Pandora, an even bigger festive footfall is expected in 2015.
Ian added: “We expect it to be even more attractive to shoppers this year as we have several new additions. Shoppers are always drawn in by our large anchor tenants and then go on to visit smaller stores while they are here too.
“Customer spend is steadily increasing and as always we have worked hard to ensure there is a good range of family friendly events laid on and we have lots lined up to celebrate the festivities.
“The Old Market Square has been transformed into a Christmas Village selling a host of Christmas presents and foods from November 19 to December 23. Our giant reindeer Sprout is back as well.
“Plus we have a very special treat with Santa and his Elves this year – we’ll be revealing details on this very soon – and there’s a Christmas Lantern parade in December.”
At The Entertainer toy shop in Golden Square assistant manager Laura Delves is preparing for an extra busy Black Friday after last year saw a huge increase in sales.
She said: “Last year was the first year we were involved and it was pretty busy so we are anticipating an even bigger event this year.
“We will have some amazing special offers on but our head office aren’t revealing what until the week itself. However, with that and our Christmas countdown deals that are already running, we know we’re going to be busy and that people will be making a special point of coming in.”
Her expectations were shared by staff at nearby New Look where duty manager Becky Stanley said: “We are expecting it to be quite busy. Last year it was really busy and we’ve got a lot more organised this time and we’re opening late.
“We’ve started our promotions already and they are tied in with some more online for the cyber weekend so it should hopefully go pretty well.”
Notes to Editor
Golden Square Shopping Centre is in Warrington. The centre now has over 675,000 sq. ft. of top retail outlets including Primark, Debenhams, H&M, Next, Topshop, River Island, Beaverbrooks, Republic, Oasis, and Boots. For more information visit: www.gswarrington.com
