There is no real need for shops to open on St Stephen's Day as the 'allure' of the winter sales isn't as big as it used to be.

Irish Times Consumer Affairs Correspondent Conor Pope was speaking amid a debate over whether shops should open on December 26th.

Conor told The Hard Shoulder while it is still a big day for retailers it's not as big as it once was.

"Some of your listeners will be old enough to remember there was a time when there would be literally queues around the block when the winter sales started," he said.

"The people who had bagged the best bargains would be on the 6 o'clock news because such a big deal it was.

"You don't really see that anymore and there's a few different reasons for it.

"The biggest reason... is that retailers are almost perpetually in sale [mode] now."

People with Christmas shopping in 2013. Image: Tetra Images / Alamy

Conor said people will still be flooding the shops on December 26th.

"A lot of retailers have pre-Christmas sales, then of course there's the Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales," he said.

"Then there's the autumn sales, then there's the summer sales, then there's the spring sales, and then there's the winter sales all over again.

"So, the allure or the attraction of the big sale season has kind of been diminished.

"Having said that people still do like to bag a bargain and there will be people pouring into towns and cities all over the country on December 26th.

"They're normally doing it a lot of the time with a clear vision of what it is they want to buy".

'Additional stock'

Conor said the winter sales are generally larger than others throughout the year.

"They need to get rid of their winter ranges and they need to bring in the stock for the spring/summer season," he said.

"There is a lot of stock they need to shift but also retailers are canny, and they buy in lot of stock specifically for the winter sales.

"What might happen is a retailer... might go into liquidation in March, May or July and a good retailer will buy up stock in a liquidation sale which they will then set aside and they'll put that on the shelves for the winter sales.

"So, it's not just the stock that they're trying to shift - that they couldn't shift pre-Christmas - it's also additional stock that they'll be offering at a special price," he added.

Conor said a lot of retailers begin their online sales on Christmas Day which he finds "depressing."

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Main image: Shoppers on Henry Street in Dublin city centre on St Stephen's Day in 2020. Image: NurPhoto SRL / Alamy