Boxing Day shoppers keen to bag a bargain
Shoppers around the country rushed into stores to take advantage of yesterday’s Boxing Day sales.
Heavy rain in Wellington and Blenheim didn’t stop shoppers travelling to the stores.
Blenheim cafe Thomas and Sons owner Hamish Thomas said the rain meant people who had planned to go to the beach chose to go shopping instead.
The cafe even offered free coffee to people from Kaiko¯ ura as a way of welcoming them back into Blenheim.
A line outside beauty store Lush in the Old Bank Building in Wellington started about 8am, with more people joining the queue as staff controlled the number of people allowed in the store.
Lush was offering 50 per cent off most products for people who shopped in store.
In Auckland, St Lukes Westfield Mall was doing brisk Boxing Day trade.
Aside from a few queues, it was more a marathon rather than a sprint for most shoppers.
Ronnie Carter put off his shopping until Boxing Day, aiming to spend about $400.
‘‘I thought why not. I’ve found heaps of bargains, I always come here to St Lukes, every time.
Mangere Bridge resident Rosalie Boag and friend shopped like seasoned pros pushing a shopping trolley around the sprawling mall.
‘‘It’s a ritual, we get here early, 7.30 this morning and see what’s here,’’ she said.
‘‘We do our normal spending then on Boxing Day we come and see what bargains we can find.’’
Meanwhile, Mt Wellington’s Sylvia Park mall was having its perennial parking hassles causing motorway gridlock.
Auckland’s largest mall attracted streams of traffic backing up onto the city’s southern motorway.
"More large retailers adopted pre-Christmas sales strategies this year, then promoted headline offers on specific products for Boxing Day." First Retail managing director Chris Wilkinson
The New Zealand Transport Agency was asking drivers to ‘‘consider avoiding this area’’.
A Westfield spokeswoman said staff were helping people find parks, and there were lines outside jewellery stores Pandora, Michael Hill, and Swarovski, and shoe store Platypus at all its three malls around the country.
Boxing Day is one of the most heavily discounted sale days of the year.
Market figures for yesterday‘s sales will be released today, but the trend so far in December showed Kiwi shoppers were on track for a record spree with $4.35 billion spent in the first three weeks of December, up almost 8 per cent on the same period last year.
First Retail managing director Chris Wilkinson said the consistent, good weather before this Christmas meant that sales were spread more evenly over December, as opposed to previous years ‘‘where shoppers desperately took advantage of the good days for recreation and getting prepared for the holidays’’.
‘‘That meant there was less of the last minute rush on Christmas Eve with stores, centres and car parks noticeably quieter as the day wore on.
‘‘More large retailers adopted pre-Christmas sales strategies this year, then promoted headline offers on specific products for Boxing Day,’’ he said.