Retailers in cities and town centres are seeing a lunchtime boom on Tuesdays as footfall levels more than double year on year.
The number of workers in these locations on Tuesdays increased by an average of 113% in March 2023, compared to the same period last year, according to research from footfall data provider Place Informatics.
Changing hybrid working patterns over the past year has seen millions of consumers decide to head into the office on Tuesdays, Wednesdays and Thursdays, rather than spending most of the week working from home. As Mondays still tends to be a home-based day for many, the firm claims that venturing back to the office on Tuesday is “the new normal”, creating a spike in lunchtime retail trade.
The cities and town centres across the UK with the highest increase in traffic were Poole, Bristol, Paisley, York, Kingston Upon Hull, Chester, Wellingborough and Halesowen, along with Soho and Mayfair in London.
Many of the towns that had their data monitored showed such an increase in visitors on Tuesdays that it was a busier day than Sunday and for some, it was even higher than Saturday as well making it the busiest day of the week.
Place Informatics uses mobility location data to calculate visitor behaviour patterns for over 2,300 town centres across the UK and all 260 Business Improvement District town centres.
Clive Hall, CEO of Place Informatics, said: “It is interesting to see how hybrid worker behaviour has changed since the pandemic and clearly our new working habits are having a huge impact on footfall numbers. Tuesdays have seen a huge increase in popularity which we believe is due to millions choosing to work from home on Mondays and then venturing back to the office or scheduling meetings on Tuesdays. It is however surprising to see how busy Tuesdays have become, surpassing Sundays and even Saturdays in some towns.”
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