THE gloves are off in the battle for Christmas spending as Glasgow today launched an all-out campaign to woo shoppers from Edinburgh.
THE gloves are off in the battle for Christmas spending as Glasgow today launched an all-out campaign to woo shoppers from Edinburgh.
With the credit crunch in full swing, marketing bosses from Scotland's biggest city are targeting the Capital's famous Princes Street and Waverley Station with a poster campaign promoting what Glasgow has to offer.
Scott Taylor, chief executive of Glasgow City Marketing Bureau, said it was keen to attract Edinburgh people put off by the traffic nightmare caused by roadworks on a new tram system - and to remind everyone Glasgow really is Scotland's top place to shop.
Glasgow was recently voted the best place outside of London for retail therapy, while Edinburgh only managed eighth place.
The city has also just come top in a Yellow Pages survey to find the UK's best festive shopping destination outside London - while Edinburgh trailed behind in fourth place.
Mr Taylor said: "I think the shopping experience in Glasgow is significantly better. You can get into Glasgow easily and park and walk around easily and there is a train from Edinburgh every 15 minutes.
"There are more shops, better shops and they are more concentrated in one area.
"We want people to get the idea this is where they want to be spending money this Christmas.
"And it's not just a shopping experience - it's got fantastic restaurants, pubs and events like Winterfest going on for a complete great experience."
Posters and TV ads will start promoting Christmas shopping in Glasgow this week across both the west and east of Scotland, as well as on ScotRail trains travelling between the two cities.
Retailers Debenhams, Frasers and John Lewis as well as the St Enoch Centre, Buchanan Galleries and Princes Square have teamed up for the £250,000 Christmas Wrapped Up campaign.
It was officially launched today by Glasgow's panto stars.
And while marketing bosses know money will be tight, they think the recent 1.5% cut in interest rates will mean spending levels this Christmas will be on a par with last year.
It is hoped Glasgow's spectacular Winterfest event will add to the attraction, with events such as Glasgow on Ice, the Christmas Lights unveiling on Sunday all providing a big pull for people who want to have fun while doing their shopping.
A new section of the city's website www.seeglasgow.com offers visitors an easy way to plan their shopping trip as well as book hotels and restaurants.
The Christmas campaign also aims to help the city centre fight off competition from out of town shopping centres such as Brae- head and Silverburn.
Mr Taylor said: "Out of town shopping centres just do not have the same offering that Glasgow city centre has.
"Christmas is not just about filling up the boot of your car and I think that's the difference between Glasgow and everywhere else."
The busiest weekend for Christmas shopping is expected to be November 29 and 30 - just after what will be for many the last pay day before Christmas.
The marketing boss added: "We want to encourage as many people to come to Glasgow to shop as possible.
"We are doing everything we can to promote the city and the city centre as the place to shop at Christmas."
We've got teams with proud Euro tradition. They have Hearts, Hibs . . . and rugby
LABELLED "Edina, Scotia's midden" by Chewin' the Fat's Banter Boys, it's anyone's guess why Edinburgh still gets to call itself the capital of Scotland. Maybe it's like letting Inverness say it's a city.
If the gallusness of Glasgow and its irreverent humour can best be summed up by Billy Connolly, there's still a touch of the Miss Jean Brodies about Auld Reekie.
The average Glaswegian has to remember to look up to see the fabulous Victorian architecture lining so many of our streets.
The average Edinburgher has their nose in the air at the best of times - and still can't see that half the buildings need a good wash.
Take a short drive west from Glasgow and you're in beautiful countryside en route to Loch Lomond.
Try the same in Edinburgh and you'll wind up in Wester Hailes. Think "Oatlands before the demolition" without even a decent chippie for comfort.
Speaking of which, stray into a Corstorphine chip shop and you'll be offered "condiments" with your fish supper.
In other words, a sachet of brown sauce dissolved in a pint of vinegar and slittered over your dinner before you can say "Naaaaaw!"
Much of Edinburgh's New Town was designed by architect Robert Adam whose solid, dependable style also extended to fireplaces.
They seem somehow proud of this.
Glasgow gave the World Charles Rennie Mackintosh whose decorative style works as well in an earring as it does on the fine facade of Glasgow School of Art.
And we have Colin and Justin, fearless interior decorators who dared to transform the lives of the less fortunate in Arden.
Did I mention we know how to laugh at ourselves?
As the capital, Edinburgh has the politicians, sitting in the £414million Scottish Parliament.
And Glasgow has the platforms at Queen Street so we can wave them on their way.
They have Edinburgh Zoo while we have Sauchiehall Street at chucking out time.
Scotland's biggest city really knows how to let its hair down - not to mention its parents, partner, friends and anyone else who finds out what happened last Bank Holiday Friday.
But that helps the Barrowlands have the best concert atmosphere on the planet with a heaving, sweating mosh pit in front of the stage whether the band is the latest rock sensation or a man in a cardigan.
In Edinburgh, some bands settle for a smattering of golf applause that would seem ungrateful to a greenkeeper sweeping the bunkers at St Andrews.
We have football teams with a proud European tradition in Celtic and Rangers, as well as the National Stadium.
They have Hearts and Hibs - and rugby.
Ivor Cutler joked his Gorbals childhood was plagued by the smell of "fecund Edinburgh middens, 40 miles distant" but that seems to have cleared due to the massively ambitious regeneration.
Not in the East, but in the West where the New Gorbals shows what can be achieved when people demand decent homes.
They've got Princes Street, where you can buy a cheap brollie every 50 yards and need to when the weather gets rough.
We've got Princes Square - a shopping oasis in the middle of the, well, bigger shopping oasis that is Buchanan Street.
And while they can pause to look up at the castle, we're too busy shopping to care.
And what is that Waverley Centre all about, anyway?
Okay, they've got Harvey Nicks but we've got time.
Veteran English comedian Jeremy Harding often says how comfortable he feels in Edinburgh because the posh accents of most locals made him feel like he never left home.
But he still got the warmest of welcomes when he came across to a city that loves to laugh at itself. And everyone else while it's at it.
They have their shops, their traditions, their personalities and we have ours - maybe one day we'll meet in the middle.
Aye, and maybe we'll bump into Gordon Ramsay there, opening his new restaurant in the Harthill services.
