War on streets of Dublin as the winter sales commence

After the traditional 48-hour Christmas ceasefire, hostilities between God and mammon resumed yesterday with the launch of the winter sales offensive.

The first shots were fired as early as 6 a.m. in central Dublin, when the Next clothes chain opened its Grafton and Henry Street stores. Desperate shoppers, many of them deprived of serious spending opportunities since Monday, had already queued for an hour by then, lured by the offer of most items at half price or less.

There may also have been some confusion because last year, at the height of the boom, the doors opened at 5 a.m. If the more relaxed starting hour is an indication of a slowing economy, however, there was little sign of any slow-down among shoppers. By mid-afternoon, customers in Henry Street were still swarming over the racks like locusts, checkout lines were longer than Christmas Eve, and frazzled staff (wearing sashes to distinguish themselves from civilians) were distributing mints to help queuers keep their cool.

The days when the big stores attracted overnight campers with the promise of three-piece suites for a fiver seem to be gone. This may explain the start of the sales in Clerys yesterday, which the store itself admitted was "slow". From 11 a.m., however, the nation and Clerys sales figures were both well up, and by afternoon, the store was "very happy".

There was a noticeably young profile among bargain hunters at the nearby Ann Summers exotic lingerie and adult accessories shop, which was also boasting large reductions (in prices, as well as on the amount of material traditionally used in underwear) yesterday. Novelty male briefs, so popular as Christmas presents, were not attracting quite as much enthusiasm in the cold light of December 27th, but there was steady business in the knicker department, where there was up to 50 per cent off, in every sense.

Accessories of a different kind drew crowds at Brown Thomas, where management claimed a 15 per cent increase in sales on last year. Some 250 queued before the 9 a.m. opening for such attractions as half-price Gucci bags.

Some stores kept their powder dry yesterday. But exchanges are expected to escalate today, when big guns Arnotts and Roches join the fray.