There’s nothing like sunshine and a stunning fashion role model to fill the shops with women hunting for flattering outfits.
Town centres in Tayside and Fife are experiencing the best kind of inflation, as more shoppers appear on the streets, many inspired by the style of the new Duchess of Cambridge and looking to replicate some of the glad rags on show during the royal wedding.
Headgear, too, is becoming a must-have-those concoctions of feathers and froth called fascinators perched on many a guest at Kate and Wills’s big day.
Dave Doig, chairman of city centre partnership DD One, says retail has seen a definite uplift since the sun started splitting the pavements and everyone caught royal wedding fever. Good weather and a succession of bank holidays brought shoppers out in droves.
While the extra business is welcome, Mr Doig said there could still be tough times ahead for the High Street.
“At the moment, a lot of people are around due to a combination of factors,” he said. “The weather is helping, there has been a lot of bank holidays and people have had time to come out. I think generally, over the last couple of months, it seems to be quite busy but it is still an uncertain time.”
As well as chairing DD One, Mr Doig is a businessman with shops in Dundee and Perth, giving him some perspective on both cities. He and his wife operate Lorraine Law jewellers, which is busy at this time of year: the wedding season.
His wife Lorraine makes bespoke rings but he says she hasn’t been asked to replicate the sapphire ring belonging to William’s mother that he placed on Kate’s engagement finger. But Mr Doig says the royal wedding has been on the minds of customers, if not guiding their choice of rings.
“People do talk about it when they come in,” he said.Perth upturnThe St John’s Centre in Perth is also experiencing a boost in the number of shoppers, meanwhile.
The centre’s marketing representative, Tricia Fox, said that figures rose 2% in the first three months of this year, compared to the same quarter in the previous year.
“Definitely there seems to be a trend of more and more people coming out to shop,” she said. “We haven’t got the statistics for the bank holiday periods but we are expecting good figures for April.”