Christmas Footfall: A Tale of Two High Streets — Winners, Losers and What Comes Next
TL:DR
The 2025 festive period delivered a mixed picture: shopping centres and retail parks grabbed the Black Friday bounce, clothing sales look set to lead Christmas growth, but overall high-street footfall slipped in November. Local initiatives, markets and strong town programming explain why some places (like Altrincham) saw festive success while others continued to struggle. homeofdirectcommerce.com+2alixpartners.com+2
Main body
Christmas remains make-or-break for many retailers, but the data this season underlines a continuing divergence between different retail destinations. National footfall datasets show shopping centres and retail parks often captured the lion’s share of Black Friday gains, while many traditional high streets recorded modest declines in November. The BRC’s latest figures show a softer high-street performance even as clothing and certain discretionary categories look stronger going into December. homeofdirectcommerce.com+1
Why some towns did well: local civic energy. Altrincham, for example, reported strong festive footfall after a concerted BID-led programme of events, winter markets and town centre promotions that persuaded people to travel for experiences, not just transactions. Where councils and BIDs coordinate lights, markets and late-opening, they capture experience-seeking shoppers and keep dwell times high. trafford.gov.uk
Retailer behaviour also mattered. Black Friday produced short-term uplifts (week-on-week spikes) but did not erase hesitancy around big non-food spends for some consumers. Industry forecasters — including AlixPartners — still expect a modest uplift in clothing sales this Christmas, signalling an opportunity for fashion retailers who get stock and value messaging right, while essential and budget food players continue to trade strongly. sensormatic.com+1
The challenge for secondary high streets is structural: lower baseline footfall, higher vacancy risk, and the lingering after-effects of weaker golden-quarter performance in 2024 and 2025. Policymakers and local authorities can help by fast-tracking meanwhile-use planning, small grants for pop-ups, and targeted marketing that rebuilds the “reason to visit” beyond price alone. MRI Software+1
Verdict: Christmas gave the high street reasons to be optimistic in places that invested in experience and local collaboration. But national footfall trends remain fragile. The towns that will thrive in 2026 are those that treat the high street as an events-driven, mixed-use destination — not just rows of retail units. Grocery Gazette+1
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