Bargain hunters out in numbers
Boxing Day traffic was bumper-tobumper down Invercargill’s Esk St as retailers reaped the rewards of year-end spending.
Whitcoulls Invercargill supervisor Roz Waldron said Boxing Day was ‘‘fantastic trading, above what it was last year’’.
The Covid-19 pandemic had made a big difference as money stayed in the country, she said.
Books were going out the door in piles of five and 10.
Foot and vehicle traffic on Esk St was ‘‘bumper-to-bumper’’.
The inner-city development highlighted the issue of a single footpath, Waldron said, as people had to weave around fellow shoppers.
Worldwide, release dates for quite a few books had been pushed back in light of shipping delays but that was beginning to ease, Waldron said.
Ben Fokkens, chair of the Neighbouring Retail Group in the Invercargill CBD, said Boxing Day was ‘‘huge’’ and there were a lot of people around.
Fokkens owns The Shoe Clinic on Esk St.
The busy Saturday came after a profitable pre-Christmas period as well, he said.
Across the street, Glenda Rongen’s wha¯nau coffee and food van, Stellar Kai, had its biggest trading day on Boxing Day.
‘‘It was a great vibe ... there were a lot of people around but there wasn’t a lot of rushing,’’ Rongen said.
Pascoes The Jewellers used to trade on Esk St but have now been operating around the corner on Kelvin St.
The business was expected to move into the inner-city development when it is finished.
Assistant manager Kimmie Hawkins said foot traffic was down a bit compared to Boxing Day last year.
This year 36 customers walked into the store on Boxing Day, last year there were 47.
She said people were spending more conservatively as the economic effects of the Covid-19 pandemic began to show.
NZ Post told Stuff on Saturday that the courier service expected to deliver about 800,000 parcels this week and about 250,000 of those were expected to be directly related to Boxing Day sales.