‘Fantastic’ day for Scottish retailers

SHOPPING centres, cinemas and visitor attractions across Scotland benefited from the strike as hundreds of thousands of customers took advantage of a mid-week day off work.

Many outlets said footfall was on a par with a busy Saturday in the run-up to Christmas. The Gyle shopping centre in Edinburgh opened its Santa’s Grotto days earlier than planned after being contacted by grandparents looking after children whose teachers and nursery staff were on strike.

There was traffic disruption on the M8 as motorists queued at the exit to Braehead Shopping Centre on the outskirts of Glasgow. There were also tailbacks on the M77 with drivers exiting for the Silverburn centre, which was expecting 40,000 shoppers – nearly double the usual number for a Wednesday.

Andrew Cronie, centre manager at the Gyle, said the shopping centre had been “buzzing” since 9am.

“A Saturday at this time of year would attract upwards of 30,000,” he said. “Today we’ve had numbers in the high 25,000s. I’ve been talking to retailers and they said it was fantastic.”