Bargain hunters out of the blocks early in pursuit of value

As a bright St Stephen’s Day sun rose over Grafton Street shortly after 9am, a retail hibernation which had lasted a full 39 hours came to sudden and somewhat surprising end.

Brown Thomas had planned on opening at 10am, but with staff already at their stations a full hour before the big moment – and a misshapen queue of seven or eight people stretching across the street outside rather than flush with the windows as is traditional – management decided to go early.

To little by way of drama, the doors swung open and a handful of people wandered past the doorman in his top hat and tails, quietly congratulating themselves on being the earliest of worms.

The timings were more strictly adhered to across the river at the high end retailer’s sister store, although it would be wrong to say the promise of deep discounts in Arnotts had brought people from their beds in any great numbers.

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By 9:20 there were just 10 people standing in line sipping takeaway coffees and watching as legions of bleary-eyed young men in puffa jackets ambled past weighed down by bags from all the trainer shops that had been first out of the starting blocks in the winter sales race.

One of the people in the Arnotts’ queue was Catherine Buckley from Fairview. “I have a voucher for €100 and have my eye on a pair of black knee-high boots that are on half price and down from €200,” she said.

She is a keen winter sales shopper and had been “up since 6:00 with the excitement of it all”. Her morning was planned with military precision and she expected to be “home with a fry in front of me before midday”.

As well as the black boots she hoped to buy, Buckley had already secured pink curtains from Next for €50, down from €100.

She said she had not been deterred from making her annual pilgrimage into the sales by surging coronavirus infections. “I am not a bit worried . . . I have my vaccine and my boosters and none of my friends come to my house anyway. So I should be grand.”

While she had her jabs, she did not have her mask. “I can’t believe I left it behind me,” she said. “I had to borrow one from that fella,” she added, gesturing towards a man standing disconsolately by a nearby flower stall. “He had one in his boot.”

The flower seller nodded as if to confirm his good deed. “I’d normally be home in my bed on Stephen’s Day, but I didn’t sell enough flowers before Christmas so here I am again.” he said.

As the minutes passed ahead of opening time, more people joined the queue – but not many.

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One of them was Vicky McManus from Cabra. “I was going to walk in today but in the end I took the Luas, I was the only one on it nearly,” she said.

She was in the market for a Michael Kors bag which was marked down from €395 to €275. “Hopefully it will be there. I saw it online and could have bought it there but then I wouldn’t have it today. Once I get it I will be gone and I won’t be dilly dallying.”

While some shops had decided to dilly dally by keeping their doors closed until the 27th – and others were holding off on opening until 10am to more closely reflect normal Sunday opening hours – some shops and shoppers were about their business much earlier.

“I was on Wicklow Street before 8am and in Size where they do a nice pair of Kicks,” said Keith Anderson from Ballyfermot.

He wasn’t even in the market for “Kicks” himself and had bought a large-footed friend, who collects trainers, a pair of size 13 Adidas and another pair for his son.

For himself he wanted a kettle, jars for tea, coffee and sugar to showcase on shelves he had put up in his kitchen before Christmas. “They’ve got some really nice stuff in the homewares department and I may as well get it now when it is on sale,” he said. “My body clock has me up early anyways.”

With 10 minutes to go before show time, the Arnotts’ queue had swelled to 40 people, with Zoe McDaid towards the back of the line.

“Ah it’ll be grand. Once they open the doors they will let us all in at the same time,” she said. She had only the loosest notion of what she would be buying. “I might get some clothes, I reckon, she said before getting distracted by movement at the top of the line.

The doors opened five minutes earlier than planned and 116 people filed in in an orderly fashion. The counters installed at the store entrance tracked people as they came and went.

At 10am there were 202 people scouring the various departments looking for bargains as staff, mostly drained of all the festive cheer, despite the continued presence of Christmas earworms playing over the store speakers, looked on.

Back on the south side of the river, Mark Limby, director of both Brown Thomas and Arnotts, was looking pleased with how the opening had gone. “People seem very chilled out,” he said. “We are seeing strong sales in accessories and homewares,” he said.

While formal wear sales had tailed off as Christmas approached and people realised they would most likely have nowhere to wear their fancy frocks and shirts, Limby said sales of athleisure was holding up.

“It is just good to be open,” he said. “I suppose people are limited to what they can do these days so it is nice to see people out shopping.”