Shoppers out for a Black Friday bargain
Shoppers were out in force in Taranaki yesterday on the hunt for a bargain or three, with tills ringing and car parks packed.
Black Friday sales began in the USA, traditionally on the day after Thanksgiving, and are becoming increasingly popular in New Zealand where they are on par with the shopping mayhem that is Labour Day and Boxing Day sales.
Centre City manager Shawn Mckenzie said the majority of shops in the mall had strong deals on this year.
‘‘I think it’s been pretty positive, and it’s good to see people back in the centre.
’’People are definitely taking advantage of having the deals before Christmas.’’
While the sale is named after a day, the promotions can last a week or longer and often begin before Friday.
Amelia Robinson loves shopping the Black Friday sales herself, so knew she had to offer one when she started own her shop.
Robinson, a mum of three, started The Little Rainbow Company, a high-end baby and toddler goods store on Devon St West in New Plymouth, in April.
Offering Black Friday sales was a way to provide some deals for her customers and to say thank you for the support they’d given her.
‘‘And just to help get Christmas shopping sorted early, it’s so good if you can to get a good chunk of it done and take advantage of the sales to get a bit of a bargain because Christmas gets pretty pricey.’’
Robinson’s sales started on
Thursday to try and get ahead of the big box store sales, and she’d had a steady flow of foot traffic as well as an increase in online orders.
She said she still had people coming into the shop when hail was pelting the CBD on Thursday.
At Mitre 10 and Mitre 10 Mega in New Plymouth, yesterday was the first day of the sales. Marketing and customer experience manager
Nicole Attrill said it was now their biggest sale of the year, overtaking the Labour Day sales.
This year featured discounts across a range of their stock.
‘‘There’s quite a lot of people and foot traffic around, which is fantastic,‘‘ she said yesterday.
Shoppers had been making the most of the specials in Hāwera, too.
Tina-Marie at Ballentynes on
High St said they had 25% off instore. This promotion finishes today. ‘‘We’ve been crazy busy all day. The sale started on Wednesday, and it’s just been busy, busy, busy since then.’’
Amelia Robinson from The Little Rainbow Company wanted to offer Black Friday sales as a thank you to her customers.