Boxing Day bargains lure thousands of shoppers to Christchurch malls

Thursday, 26 December 2019

Boxing Day sales brought crowds of shoppers to Westfield Riccarton.

It seems Santa came laden with gift cards and cash this year, with thousands of shoppers hunting for Boxing Day bargains keeping Christchurch malls humming.

Stores hung signs boasting of slashed prices and one-day-only deals as they worked to clear old stock for the new year.

Westfield Riccarton manager Kirstie McNulty said while it was too soon to know how much was spent in the mall on Thursday, it seemed 'busier than last year', and the queues had started earlier than ever.

Christchurch's Westfield Riccarton mall was busy from the moment it opened, at 8am on Thursday.

The mall opened an hour earlier than it did in 2018, with some shoppers waiting outside from 7am for the 8am opening, she said. A spokesman for Northlands Mall said queues had also formed outside the Papanui mall before trading kicked off, and The Warehouse had been 'busy all day'.

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Charlee, 8, and Graeme Emslie, swapped a jacket for a larger size.

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'People know what to expect with Boxing Day shopping at Riccarton. They know it'll be busy, and it is,' McNulty said.

Thousands of shopped flooded Christchurch's Westfield Riccarton mall on the hunt for a Boxing Day bargain.

Siblings Davis and Claudia Gale said they went to the mall most years – as long as they got money for Christmas.

The pair said they found the best deals by browsing websites online first and choosing what they wanted to buy, then going into the store to try things on and seal the deal.

According to PriceSpy, an online price comparison tool, Boxing Day sales are not necessarily the best time to bag a bargain, with some products increasing in price before the 'sale day'.

PriceSpy country manager Liisa Matinvesi-Bassett said retailers used 'sales events' to increase the price of some items, meaning consumers ended up paying more than if they bought it on a regular day.

Last year, the biggest discounts were on televisions, while the worst deals were usually on running shoes and mobile phones. On Boxing Day 2018, about 13 per cent of products PriceSpy monitored increased in price.

'More people are starting to switch their shopping allegiance from the traditional post-Christmas Boxing Day sales to the newer phenomenon, Black Friday,' Matinvesi-Bassett said.

'It could be just a few years before we see a complete turnaround with people opting to do their sales shopping ahead of Christmas instead of after it.'

Pre-Christmas shopping was at a record-breaking high this year with 199 transactions per second on Christmas Eve, according to Paymark.

At the busiest time of day on December 24, Paymark handled more than 679,000 transactions an hour.

Desiree Talanoa circled Riccarton mall's parking lot for 30 minutes before finding a park at midday on Thursday. Car park chaos is one of the many reasons she usually gave Boxing Day shopping a miss.

With so much still on her shopping list this year she decided it was 'worth the trip'. She saved about $200 on new work clothes from various women's fashion stores, among other things. Most items had been slashed to half price, she said.

Graeme Emslie, and his daughter Charlee, 8, managed to swerve the crowds with a quick 'in and out' trip to exchange an ill-fitting jacket given as a Christmas gift and take advantage of the kids' toys sales.

Charlee saved up some money before Christmas to pay for her new toy, but forgot to bring it along with her to the mall, her dad said.