Shopping destinations across Tayside and Fife reported mixed festive fortunes as the high street cull continued.
More than 8,000 retail jobs have been put at risk following the collapse of HMV and Blockbuster, with the Jessops camera chain also shutting its doors.
But despite those difficulties the Scottish Retail Consortium has declared the Christmas period as the best for retail north of the border for two years.
Dundee’s Overgate anchored by a Debenhams store about to undergo a multi-million-pound refit enjoyed a positive Christmas period, with sales up more than 5% through December.
Katherine Armstead, of centre owner Land Securities, said the situation on the high street was not as bleak as many feared despite the challenging economic conditions.
“Land Securities’ Scottish portfolio remained resilient throughout the Christmas period, with centres in Dundee and Aberdeen performing above the national and Scottish average,” she said.
“In Dundee sales for December were up 5.4% on 2011, and many of the brands within our centres throughout Scotland such as John Lewis, Next and Debenhams have reported record Christmas trading, which shows consumers are still buying.”
At Dundee’s Wellgate, centre manager Jon Walton said average footfall remained on a par with last year’s figures and performance was buoyed by five new retail openings in the lead-up to the holiday season.
Early returns from tenants suggested “robust” customer totals had translated into strong sales.
“The figure we’ve had in so far have been very positive and we are very happy with them,” said Mr Walton.
“I think we are seeing some green shoots of recovery, albeit small ones.”
Whilst he warned that January was a tough trading month, Mr Walton added there had been “some signs that sales have been very good.”
At Dunfermline’s Kingsgate shopping centre a loyal local consumer base was out in force in the run-up to Christmas, with record numbers of shoppers through the doors in the seven days to December 25.
“Last month looked like it was going to be very slow to take off in terms of footfall figures, but things turned around in the week before Christmas,” said centre manager Neil Mackie.
“Our average footfall for the week is 265,000, but figures rose by a further 20,000 people this year. This is the highest figure we have ever achieved.”
In Perth, St John’s ended what it described as a “tough year for retail” on a high.
“Footfall for the last Saturday before Christmas was up by a phenomenal 17.7% on 2011, beating the national average by a pleasing 7%,” said administration and marketing officer Claire McDiarmid.
“Christmas Eve shoppers increased by a massive 7.73% on the year before.”
Ms McDiarmid said retailers had weathered last year by grasping every opportunity to entice shoppers into their stores.
“Many have put on special events such as Ernest Jones’ wedding fair and Game’s midnight launches of new games,” she said.
However, Stephen Roberts, of the Mercat Centre, in Kirkcaldy, said the festive period had been a real “struggle”.
Footfall at the centre which has major retail draws including M&S, TK Maxx, Boots and BHS fell back several percentage points on the previous year and Mr Roberts said he saw no indication that better times lay ahead.
“We have had people indicate to us that they have closed down not particularly because of rents but because of business rates,” he said.
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