Panic-buyers hit the stores as Christmas Eve shopping bonanza gets underway

A Christmas Eve shopping bonanza began today with many stores launching early sales to entice panic-buyers.

Major retailers were reporting brisk business both on high streets and online as people made last-minute purchases.

Department store Selfridges said it expected 80% of customers today to be men - with 250,000 expected to start and finish their shopping on the final day before Christmas.

Supermarkets were also packed with people stocking up on festive food.

B&Q, the home improvement and garden centre retailer, started an online and in-store sale from today.

Tesco started its online sale on Tuesday with offers on furniture, homeware and sports products. These are followed by electrical items from 8pm today.

Electrical specialist Comet predicted its website would attract a record 1,682,200 visitors over today, tomorrow and Boxing Day, with a surge of bargain-hunters going online between 7pm and 9pm on Christmas Day.

Department store Debenhams started its sale online at Debenhams.com at 6am today, with doors open on Boxing Day at 7am for the in-store sales.

More than 13 million people will make a last-minute dash to the shops today.

Research from Sainsbury's Credit Cards claims 13.3 million were descending on the high street as the countdown to Christmas Day drew to a close.

The findings indicate that 19% of adults intend to do some of their Christmas shopping today, spending around £1.37 billion.

This is equivalent to £57 million an hour or £951,000 per minute.

In total, around 7% of people's festive spending will take place today.

But 1.53 million people intend to do between 91% and 100% of their Christmas shopping then.

Cabot Circus, Bristol's newest shopping centre which opened in September last year, was cautiously optimistic about festive trade this year, but has yet to release sales figures.

Richard Belt, director of the £500 million city centre development, said the mall had half a million visitors last week.

He said: "The number of people visiting us in the past three-and-a-half weeks has been absolutely superb - footfall has been up around 25%.

"Last week, Cabot had around 500,000 visitors as people got ready for Christmas."

He added: "Our biggest day so far was Saturday November 28 - most people had just been paid, so we had 125,000 people through the centre.

"The vast majority of our traders are very pleased with things."

Anne Pitcher, Selfridges' buying and merchandising director, said: "Business has been strong and we're having a robust Christmas."

Tim Bettley, fashion retailer Peacocks' managing director, said: "We've seen a huge last-minute rush and pre-Christmas trade has been off the clock. The weather has helped, with people going local instead of travelling into town."

Superdrug, the health and beauty retailer, sold almost 300,000 bottles of fragrance last Christmas Eve and was expecting a similar frenzy this year.

Wendy Miranda, of kitchenware store Lakeland, said many shoppers needed items for Christmas dinner.

"We tend to see a last-minute rush for turkey foil and roasting pans on Christmas Eve, as people realise their turkey's too big, or they need a couple extra for the potatoes and parsnips," she said.

"Customers also come in for meat thermometers, basters, gravy jugs and Christmas pastry cutters as they were stored away safely last year and cannot be found now they are needed. It seems you can never have enough napkins either."

She added that many of today's customers were men.

"We are always here to point them in the right direction - as much as I love my Oven Mate, I certainly wouldn't want to find it in my stocking," she said.

Waitrose said sales for yesterday were £38.7 million - £4.4 million up on the equivalent day last year. A normal Wednesday would take £12 million.

Shoppers bought 75,000 stuffing balls, 7.5 tonnes of dry aged sirloin, 15 tonnes of rib of beef, about 1.8 million chipolatas and 33,000 legs of lamb, the store said.

Enough Baileys to fill 1,237,500 glasses, 9,600 slices of chocolate and salted caramel bombe, the equivalent of 55,200 scoops of mince pie ice cream, 260,000 cranberries and 624,000 chestnuts was also snapped up, along with 76,060lb (34,500kg) of turkey and enough Stilton to put on three million crackers.

Waitrose said sales for yesterday were £38.7 million - £4.4 million up on the equivalent day last year. A normal Wednesday would take £12 million.

Shoppers bought 75,000 stuffing balls, 7.5 tonnes of dry aged sirloin, 15 tonnes of rib of beef, about 1.8 million chipolatas and 33,000 legs of lamb, the store said.

Enough Baileys to fill 1,237,500 glasses, 9,600 slices of chocolate and salted caramel bombe, the equivalent of 55,200 scoops of mince pie ice cream, 260,000 cranberries and 624,000 chestnuts was also snapped up, along with 76,060lb (34,500kg) of turkey and enough Stilton to put on three million crackers.