Independent business owners in Romsey have revealed that Christmas sales were positive.

Traders have seen their costs soar and the cost of living crisis just the economy was fully emerging from Covid.

Paul Solloway, manager of B.Drummond Butchers in Bell Street, said: “This year was good, with the current climate, to do better than we did last year was good. You just never know from one year to the next.”

Victoria Ridge, manager of Angel Floss in Latimer Street, said: “Well, it was our first Christmas, so I didn’t really know what to expect in the shop. But we did really well; we really enjoyed it. 

“We did a couple of ‘Meet Santa’ events as well which went really well – drove kids in. It was a ticketed event, so we were really pleased with how it went.”

Naomi Reading, manager of Green Hill Patchwork in Bell Street, said: “The Christmas side of things was good, it was not our best Christmas but we made a little profit and we are happy.”

Jackie Sanders, manager of Roundabout Toys in the Hundred, said: “We had a really good Christmas, very busy. We probably did the same as we normally do around Christmas.”

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Angie Nelson, manager of Oasis in Church Street, said: “We had a successful trading quarter, despite the wet weather which some days made Romsey a bit of a ghost town! As we are ‘more than a bookshop’ our sales of fairly traded products went very well, along with the books, cards and all the other products we sell.”

However, some businesses reported a few issues with sales during the Santa Rescue event. It took place at the Romsey Town Hall on December 9 and several roads leading to the town centre were blocked off.

Naomi said: “Because it was rebranded as Santa Rescue, they thought Romsey wasn’t doing late-night shopping and that did affect a lot of people’s sales, not just myself, but other businesses too.

“Up the top was lovely and busy, lots of people around. But they blocked off so many different roads, so people just thought the roads were closed. So they then never ventured down.”

Angie said: “We stayed open and while custom was slow, the event did bring folk into the town and created a festive atmosphere. Shops directly off the main Market Place are used to a smaller footfall when events take place, but we all try to promote our businesses and in our case, open for late nights whether there is an event or not.”