Businesses ‘boom’ as holiday sales soar
Out-of-town shoppers spending up large
Business in the Bay of Plenty has been “booming” thanks to out-of-towners, new figures reveal. Electronic transactions from Worldline NZ show holiday season spending in the Bay was up 11 per cent compared to 2020.
But some say the rise of inflation made spending appear more impressive.
In the seven days ending January 4, shoppers in the region spent $57.6 million on retail.
Nationally, liquor merchants earned $16m on New Year’s Eve, an increase of 13 per cent compared to 2020.
Excluding spending in the hospitality industry, Worldline NZ recorded a nationwide total of $696m in retail earnings between December 29 and January 4.
In Rotorua, Q Records and Collectables owner Quentin Mcintosh said sales had been “a perfect storm since December”.
Mcintosh estimated that half of his holiday period customers were outof-towners.
Some stock was “thin on the ground”, with Ed Sheeran CDS selling out and vinyl by Whitney Houston and Adele in short supply, he said.
Mcintosh said “the weather really helped” to bring in customers.
Clothing shop Ahu sales assistant Tatiana Ruaiti said “business has been booming” in the holiday period.
Ruaiti said the shop sold out of about nine different items and sales had been equally busy during Christmas and New Year.
“Out-of-towners helped,” Ruaiti said.
Laleyna Vail, owner of bohemian
clothing shop Lala Mandala, said the holiday period sales felt like they were back to how it was before lockdown.
“It was a good time for us”, Vail said. It was great to have people coming to Rotorua from lots of regions, with
Auckland, Taupo¯ and Wellington visitors here in high numbers, she said.
Vail felt business was looking much more “healthy”.
Compared to the previous year’s holiday period, Vail said business was about the same and she is hoping
consistency will lead to the shop opening all year round.
Mcleods Booksellers manager Jemma Morrison said the holiday period saw lots of visitors and browsers, “lots of people were discovering the store”.
However, Morrison said sales “weren’t amazing”.
Sales were down from the previous year’s holiday period as 2020 had a large focus on supporting local