Bargains set to entice crowds of shoppers

Post-Christmas sales across the country are expected to attract thousands of shoppers from today as stores open their doors with sizable discounts and some spectaculars to entice customers in early.

Clerys department store in Dublin is charging a mere €1 for an Odearest Royale 5ft bed, valued at €1,699 while a 42in Philips television is reduced from €1,299 to €200. Clerys was expecting shoppers to queue from 3am this morning.

The sale starts at 9am and the first 100 customers in the queue will receive a free breakfast in the store's rooftop restaurant.

Arnotts in Henry Street, Dublin, starts at 10am and remains open until 9pm tonight, with discounts of up to 50 per cent on the fashion floor and 30 per cent off shoes.

Brown Thomas on Grafton Street, Dublin, Galway, Cork, Limerick and BT2 in Dublin, Dundrum and Blanchardstown starts at 9am, with discounts of between 20 per cent and 50 per cent across the board. However, the exception will be Chanel which has no sale.

Kilkenny Design Centre on Nassau Street, Dublin, opens its doors at 8.30am with a 20 per cent minimum discount on everything. The Eason sale also starts today across the country, with discounts on books while Christmas decorations and stationery are reduced to clear.

Debenham's sale in 12 branches nationwide starts at 8am, while Harvey Nichol's in Dundrum shopping centre opens at 10am. Currys started its sale yesterday at its 10 stores, as did PC World, which has 12 shops across the country.

The sales start as retailers reported a good performance overall, despite a sluggish start, to the Christmas shopping season, the most important quarter of the trading year. Tom Coffey, chief executive of the Dublin City Business Association, said there had been double-digit growth for each of the past 10 years, while this year growth was some 6 to 6.5 per cent.

November was sluggish but picked up towards the end of the month and December was much better than expected and "pretty brisk", helped by late night shopping for all of December and November.

The "quality shopper" who has a good disposable spend, used "commuting time" to go late night shopping and stores reported a 20 per cent increase in sales between 5pm and 8pm compared to the 9am to 5pm hours, Mr Coffey said.

Customers can shop with the knowledge that some public transport services are back to normal.

Normal services will operate on all Dublin bus routes, with a Nitelink service at 00.30am and 2am.

Inter-city bus services are running as normal with a few exceptions and passengers are asked to check the timetable. There are alterations on all InterCity rail routes, while the Dart operates a Saturday service, although the Docklands train station will be closed.

A Saturday service also operates on the Newbridge/ Kildare, Drogheda/Dundalk and Maynooth services.