With a spell of unseasonably warm weatheron the way, Britons will be making this Easter weekend a ‘Barbecue Bank Holiday’ according to one of the nation’s leading home enhancement and garden retailers, Homebase. The retailer is seeing demand for barbecues up by 20% on last year and has witnessed an unprecedented rush onother garden items in the run up to the long weekend.
Providing the ideal way for kids and big kids to cool off, demand for paddling pools is up 75%, while keeping the garden fresh is also important with sprinkler demand up 30% and lawnmowers up 41%.Relaxing in the sun is clearly a priority after a long, cold winter with demand for hammocks seeing a staggering 90% rise.
Caroline Bacon, barbecue buyer at Homebase commented, “At this time of year customers often hedge their bets on how they’ll spend the weekend, depending on the weather. This year there’s no doubt it’s going to be a ‘Barbecue Bank Holiday’. Demand for barbecues is red hot and we also expect to sell enough gas this week to fuel 300,000 barbecues”.
Forecaster for the MET Office, Dave Britton, has said the normal temperatures for mid to late April are somewhere between 10-15C and described this week’s weather as “unusually hot”.
Now Homebase is pulling out all the stopsto get extra stock of items such as gazebos and garden furniture into stores, as people not only want to enjoy the sunshine but also prepare to celebratenext week’s Royal Wedding in style. While councils have over 4,000 applications for official street parties, hundreds more unofficial get-togethers are anticipated. Homebase expects to sell enough chairs to fill Westminster Abbey 30 times over.