Consumers: Cross-Channel bargain hunters

consumers

Consumers: Cross-Channel bargain hunters

Bargain hunters on day trips to France expect to save between pounds 65 and pounds 70 per trip, while high spenders are hoping for discounts of more than pounds 100, a report claimed yesterday.

Research by Visa Delta, the UK debit card, said bargain hunters on average spent pounds 130 on shopping during their visits to French shopping centres, with some high spenders forking out between pounds 250 and pounds 500.

Those figures compare dramatically with research published in 1996 which showed the average expenditure on a cross-Channel trip was around pounds 50.

Not surprisingly, wine and beer tend to be at the top of most shoppers' lists, followed by cheese, perfume, chocolate and clothes.

The majority of those taking part in the survey envisaged making between four and eight cross-Channel journeys this year. A spokeswoman for Visa said: "In 1996 Britons made almost 12 million trips across the channel and for half of all day-trippers shopping was the main purpose of their visit."