I had the opportunity in two successive days this week to walk London’s West End and the centre of Bristol (certainly one of the UK’s more significant high streets). Whilst the comparison between the two will always be chalk and cheese, my Bristol experience was particularly illuminating.

Oxford Street was Oxford Street. Shoppers crowded onto the pavements and (particularly) the department stores packed out. Surprising or not surprising depending upon which way you look at things but certainly not likely to be a true barometer of Christmas 2011 on the high street.

I arrived in Bristol in mid-afternoon. Normally at this time of the year I would have taken the train but surely the car parks would be half empty (certainly if Mary Portas is to be believed)? After 30 minutes of driving around, I finally squeezed myself into a car park about a mile from the main action at Cabot Circus (the newish designer brand-led centre for those of you that don’t know Bristol). So what do I know!

When I finally arrived at the shops it was time to take stock (not literally of course). What stood out was the uniformity of the signage. In nearly all cases “Up to 50% off”. Marks and Spencer seemed slightly more parsimonious; “Our Christmas Gift To You … 20% off Women’s Socks”. Wow, I can just imagine my wife’s reaction on Christmas Day when she gets those.

However, every store that I went into seemed to have no shoppers and certainly no Christmas queues at the tills. I started with the upmarket designer clothes stores, proceeded to the department stores and finally (feeling ever more confident that my theory about consumers trading down this Christmas would be proved correct) Primark and Wilkinson. Still no customers; the Wilkinson’s girl was even so unharrassed that she had time to me to explain to me why they no longer stocked wooden waste paper bins (back to the drawing board for my mother-in-law’s present then).

I was just about to give up when I happened upon the HMV and Waterstone’s stores. Now every retail analyst will tell you that these two are total lame ducks. However, both stores were packed. So that’s why the car parks were full! There can only be one of two possible conclusions to draw from what I observed yesterday:

• Either – Bristol is an intellectual capital with also a propensity to DVD-watch and computer game-play
• Or – perhaps shoppers are reacting to all the economic gloom by investing in presents to be enjoyed in the home; it’s certainly cheaper that way

It will certainly be interesting to see whether retailers selling more “inward facing” products will be amongst the winners when the dust settles and the Christmas trading results are announced. Watch this space!