A North East town centre joined other North East shopping areas in seeing a lack of footfall on yesterday's black Friday.

Despite the allure of Black Friday deals on offer from retailers such as JD, the area surrounding Stockton town centre and the Wellington Square shopping centre appeared bare today (November 24).

A video of the town centre showed only a few people going between shops on the cold afternoon.

It is joined by Newcastle and other North East shopping hotspots which seemingly did not see substantial footfall.

Newcastle's Northumberland Street looked light on people this Friday with pictures emerging of a few customers entering huge retailers such as JD, TK Maxx, and FootAsylum - who all had Black Friday deals available.

Speaking to various workers at different businesses in Stockton town centre, the Echo's reporter was told that business had been busy for the most part.

The Northern Echo:

A worker at Protein Superstore in the Wellington Square said they believe shoppers looking to take advantage of Black Friday deals were most likely doing so online.

Meanwhile, one Stockton resident claimed that business was "heaving" at Portrack Lane, particularly at Smyths, The Range, and B&M.

Online retail giant Amazon stated that their Black Friday deals were "as busy as ever" and seeing no decline in popularity. 

David Tindal, general manager of Amazon’s Swindon fulfilment centre, its second largest in the UK, told the PA news agency that the site was preparing for its busiest time of the year, between Black Friday and Christmas, as the site’s more than 2,000 staff ship millions of items a week.

The Northern Echo:

Mr Tindal said: “There’s a lot of talk about whether Black Friday’s past its peak.

“All I can say is from that from Amazon’s perspective it’s as busy as ever. We’re not seeing any sign of a decline.”

“Black Friday’s really exciting. For us, the period from Black Friday through to Christmas is the busiest time of the year.

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"We spend 10 months getting ready for this. We’re expecting it all to run super smoothly.

“We’ll be really busy but it’s a really good fun time. We do a lot of fun activities with the individuals who are working here.

“I’ll get a chance to do quite a lot of the jobs in the building. It’s a great time of year.”