Shoppers defied the wintry weather to hit the stores and give retailers their busiest weekend of the year, figures showed today.

Hundreds of thousands of customers pounded the pavements of the West Midlands in the rush to stock up for Christmas. Bargain hunters who had been putting off their festive shopping in the hope of bagging cut-price sales items descended on stores at the weekend, spending an estimated £4 billion across the country despite the cold weather.

Traders in need of a pre-Christmas boost following last year’s disappointing trade were in luck – with more than 200,000 shoppers thought to have visited Birmingham’s Bullring on Saturday and 1.1million in the last week.

More than 100,000 bustled through the doors of Dudley’s Merry Hill shopping mecca and another 100,000 shoppers visited Wolverhampton’s Mander Centre.

Thousands of shoppers also converged on the city’s Wulfrun Centre at the weekend. Centre boss Colin Quinton said numbers were up on last year although half a per cent lower than trading figures nationwide.

He said: “Our weekend figures do not come through until tomorrow but from walking round the centre on Saturday the signs were encouraging.

“It’s clear we’re still in a recession and people are still being hit hard but yet they’re going out and enjoying themselves. It’s hard to compete with Merry Hill’s free parking but we’re holding our own, and we’re expecting a busy few days ahead with people waiting to pick up last-minute bargains,” he added.

Merry Hill marketing manager Rebecca Jeavons said: “Our retailers have been busy and shoppers seem to have been making the most of the last full weekend before Christmas.”

Meanwhile, Merry Hill’s Sainsbury’s store manager Natalie Walker said: “The weekend was a busy as we expected and we’ve already had a lot of customers in today. The dates on fresh food have only just started to last until Christmas day so I think the busiest time has just begun.”

Wolverhampton’s flagship Beatties store also reported a very good weekend’s trading. Duty manager Julia Roberts said: “Saturday was busy right from the off.”