The tornado and ugly weather that hit Bermuda on Saturday had a significant impact on sales in the run-up to Christmas, but failed to dampen retailers' spirits as signs of an economic recovery started to emerge.

What is traditionally the busiest weekend of the year for many traders proved to be a washout for high street stores as the storm and torrential rain lashed the Island, but trade picked up on Sunday with shoppers hitting the streets to make some last-minute purchases.

However, business was mixed, with some retailers reporting better figures than last year when the economic crisis struck and consumers began cutting back on their shopping habits, with reasons to be positive for the year ahead, while others struggled to hit their targets in advance of the festive season.

George Grundmuller, president and CEO of the Phoenix Stores Ltd., said he expected to see a big rush of shoppers during Christmas week.

But he added that customers were being a lot more selective in the way they shopped as they became more cautious about how they spent their money, particularly when it came to Hallmark cards, with some people choosing to make their own instead of buying them from the store.

On the flipside, Mr. Grundmuller said the Phoenix Stores' operations in Reid Street and its Front Street business had done well, while The Bookmart had enjoyed good sales, especially in foreign books, with the newly-launched Brown & Co. website accounting for 25 percent of sales for that part of the business.

"The last week before Christmas is the busiest before the end of the year, so we are still cautiously optimistic with three days to go," he said.

Susan Millar, vice-president and general manager of Crisson Jewellers, said her company had so far enjoyed a "positive Christmas", with December's results looking surprisingly solid and she hoped it would continue in that vein.

"We had had good traffic in stores and we are doing a nice volume of sales," she said.

"The bad weather definitely impacted our business negatively and that one day on Saturday showed a real change in pattern of sales, but it has come back today."

Dawn Zuill, owner of Daisy & Mac, said that sales had gone reasonably well in the run-up to Christmas, but were not yet meeting her expectations. However there were some positive signs with the Dockyard store posting record takings last weekend.

"We have had a pretty decent weekend in spite of the weather," she said.

"Funnily enough we had a very good day in Dockyard, which is very promising, and for me it shows that some of the festivities that Wedco is putting on for the west end community are paying off. In fact, Daisy & Mac had its best day ever in Dockyard over the weekend, which is good for us, and the weekend shopping overall was pretty good.

"Unfortunately , I think it is on the heels of a very difficult season for us as retailers, despite starting to pull it round a little bit in the end, so it is a bit of a bitter sweet feeling."

Gaylynne Cannonier, owner of Foreign Cargo, said that business had been busy, but was slightly behind on last year. She said Sunday's takings made up for the bad weather which put off potential shoppers on Saturday.

"The bad weather on Saturday may have deterred people from coming out, but we have been making up for lost time since," she said.

"It is picking up and there is a slight difference and we are more pleased than we anticipated.

"It was not the biggest weekend of the year we have every had, but we surprisingly did better on Sunday than we did last year, so it compensated for the previous day."

Andrew Mackay, general manager at Gorham's, said trade had been steady, however sales were down about 10 percent due to the inclement conditions. He said the department store was now focused on an advertising campaign to lure in customers in the last few days before Christmas.

"It is traditionally one of the three busiest weekends of the year for sure, but especially after the tornado came down the last two hours were pretty quiet," he said.

"I think we have done a number of heavy ads for this week, so we are hopeful they will give us that final boost."

Peter Darling, managing director of William Bluck & Co. Ltd., said that sales were down on 2008, mainly as a result of the adverse weather conditions which have hit the Island recently driving away shoppers.

"Our particular business never does that well in the run-up to Christmas, but there are still three more shopping days left, so we hope for a little uptick before Christmas," he said.

"Today, I noticed that Front Street was quite quiet but Reid Street was ram-packed, while the restaurants seem to be quiet as well, which is not a good sign.

"My wife and I went out for late night shopping on Friday night and went into a couple of gift shops and they said it really was quiet.

"But, that said, things have definitely picked up over the last three weeks, although we are a long way from a recovery, however, I think people are more positive even if they are not spending, certainly more so than last year."