Boxing Day footfall rises but number of shoppers is well down on pre-Covid levels

Shoppers form an orderly queue, replete with refreshments, outside the Harrods department store in Knightsbridge, London, on Boxing Day. Photograph: Tayfun Salcı/Zuma Press Wire/Rex/Shutterstock

Retailers have recorded a small pickup in Boxing Day footfall, but visits to stores remained well below pre-pandemic levels as several high street chains stayed shut.

Retailers have been braced for weak spending over the Christmas period as the UK economy stagnates amid the cost of living crisis.