On-trade

23 December was most lucrative day for pubs last Christmas

23rd December on course to be the busiest day for grocery shopping, with spending in supermarkets on that day 66% higher than the previous week in 2023

The busiest day for pubs of last year’s holiday season was Saturday 23 December, with €6.3m spent in total by AIB customers. That’s just 4% lower than the record pub spend in 2023, which happened on St Patrick’s Day. And in the week before Christmas 2023, 65% of the spend in pubs was by men.

The data was compiled from over 78 million card transactions carried out by AIB customers in store and online during December 2023 and has been anonymised and aggregated. Data provided by AIB features one of the most comprehensive and accurate data sets on consumer spending in Ireland.

Data from the survey also reveals that customers spent €3.8 billion in store and online in December 2023. €121m was spent in shops on Friday 22 December 2023, 130% higher than the average day last year, making it the busiest day of the year for in store shopping, with 2.9 million transactions.

The busiest time of the year for spending in store was between 3pm and 4pm on 22 December, with almost €12m spent in that hour alone. Women spend more than men on shopping in the run up to Christmas. The busiest hour for in store shopping by men was between 12pm and 1pm on Saturday 23 December 2023, spending €5.6m in that hour alone, as they made a last-minute festive dash to the shops.

Saturday 23 December was also the busiest day of the year for grocery shopping in store, with spending 66% higher than the previous Saturday in 2023. In store spending on groceries that day was c. €42m.

Despite the rise in online shopping, we are still choosing to do our Christmas grocery shop in store. 93% of grocery spend was in store compared to 7% online.

In the week leading up to Christmas 2023, men spent almost twice as much on jewellery as women. When men purchased jewellery, the average transaction was €216, for women it was €110. Almost two thirds of spend on jewellery that week was by men.

People from Meath spent the most on their cards in store and online in the week before Christmas December 2023 (€661) followed by Kildare (€655) and Wicklow (€653). People from Donegal spent the least (€537) followed by Louth (€580) and Leitrim (€582).

While Christmas Day is the quietest day of the  year for instore spending, there is online activity. There were 312,000 online card transactions that day.

Adrian Moynihan, AIB

Speaking about the data, Adrian Moynihan, head of Consumer at AIB said  “Christmas is the busiest time of the year for many businesses and they will welcome the fact that this year is on course to be another Christmas cracker, particularly in those final days in the run up to Christmas Day. Spending in toy shops was 178% higher in December than the monthly average for the whole of 2023, while 23 December is likely to be the busiest day of the year for grocery spend in store. Men appear to leave a lot of their shopping until the last minute, over lunch on the day before Christmas Eve. And retailers can plan for a very busy 22 and 23 December, with almost six million transactions in shops over these two days in 2023. It’s great to see people shopping in store as it not only supports Irish businesses and jobs, it also ensures that the products we buy have a lower carbon footprint as they aren’t traveling hundreds of kilometres before reaching us.”

 


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