Footfall in Galway city centre up on last year, while shoppers also buying local online
While footfall is well up on last year, city retailers experiencing the highest levels of trade are those with easily navigated websites.
Punters are switching in their droves to online shopping locally to avail of bargains by ‘click and collect’ to avoid Brexit customs charges and delays in deliveries.
Footfall figures for Week 49 of this year were under 245,000 – up one quarter compared to the same week of 2020 when it was over 195,000.
For Week 50, the footfall was even higher at 257,000, which was a marginal six per cent jump on the same week last year. The numbers descending on the town centre were likely affected by the warnings to stay at home during Storm Barra, so could have been even higher were it not for the adverse weather.
Footfall figures are calculated by tracking the number of visitors based on the wifi on their mobile phone, at various points in the city and does not count people without mobile phones, or people whose wifi is not turned on, which means the figures are not definitive but do give an indication of trends.
And it’s a trend reported by local retailers and hospitality traders to the Galway Chamber of Commerce CEO Kenny Deery.
“In general, any of the shops which had a decent online capacity have been doing well. Those with hampers, food boxes and cheese boxes were all selling well online with people coming into town to collect them as they worry about delays in shipping,” he revealed.
“People are ordering online and going in and collecting what they bough instead of going from shop to shop browsing. But the hope is once they do go in to collect, they will walk around and buy something else.”
Department store owner Anthony Ryan says trade has been “quite buoyant” for December so far and well up on 2019 before Covid turned the regular shopping environment upside down.
“People are shopping earlier. Black Friday is a major event now, it was a very busy weekend, it’s completely changed the way people shop and it’s to the consumers’ benefit as they are getting discounts a lot earlier,” he reported.
“Last year the shops were closed in November and two weeks in December so there was a big bounce back in December, but this year is better. People aren’t cautious but are well managed, they’re observing all protocols like wearing the masks, sanitising, social distancing but they’re happy to get out and be out.”
Homeware has continued to be very strong throughout the pandemic but menswear is having a real resurgence as more people opt to gift from the family-run local retailer. The company’s online shop has experienced “extraordinary” growth in the last two years.
“We have a fully integrated website where we have even our sales stock available. The mantra to shop local is having an effect in that people of Tuam are shopping in Tuam and people in Loughrea are shopping in Loughrea but we’re also getting a lot of customers from Dublin in particular who are coming to Galway for a staycation and are shopping here.”
Mr Deery stressed the fact that Galway is one of the strictest places in Ireland with the Covid hospitality regulations should serve to reassure members of the public about their safety when they are out and about here.
“It’s a great testament to businesses in the city. I’m from Mayo and it’s a little more lacklustre. One restaurant I went to asked for ID, the vaccine passport and did a temperature check. I said wow – I feel this is very safe and comfortable.”
While most Christmas parties have been cancelled, restaurants and pubs are reporting high occupancy as people are booking smaller tables for seasonal gatherings. High Covid infection rates mean a high level of cancellations, but these are being quickly booked up again.