Lines and busy car parks as Kiwis partake in Black Friday sales

Friday, 27 November 2020

Shops and malls have been inundated by shoppers hunting for Black Friday sales bargains.

In Lower Hutt, cars were queued down the road to get into the Briscoes and Rebel Sport carpark, marshalled by staff in high visibility vests.

Shopper Jo Broad said the Rebel Sport discounts were worth the effort.

“I have a son that has a birthday coming up, and so I did the birthday shopping and the Christmas shopping,” she said.

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She had been holding off until the Black Friday sales to do her shopping.

“I have been in store and seen things I wanted to buy and I knew the Black Friday sale was coming up. So, I waited to see what was on offer. Some of the items were 40 per cent off, 50 per cent off.”

In Rebel Sport, the lines to pay were 20 people deep.

Another woman, who didn’t want to be named, said it was embarrassing that she had been caught shopping on Black Friday.

“Its ridiculous, it's an American tradition, but I am going to a wedding tomorrow and I have knitted a tea cosy for my niece and I wanted to get a tea pot to put it on.”

She was in a Briscoes store on Thursday to buy the tea pot when she heard a store announcement advertising the Black Friday sale.

Waiting a day meant she got a 50 per cent discount on her purchase.

Rod Duke, managing director of Briscoe Group, says Black Friday this year could be the retailer’s biggest single day of sales ever.

“It was worth it in the end,” she said.

Black Friday, a shopping tradition imported from the United States, was traditionally the day retailers moved into the black and began making profits for the year.

Over the last few years, New Zealand retailers have begun to offer Black Friday discounts in an attempt to compete with online shopping.

Keith McLaughlin, managing director for credit bureau Centrix, said credit demand had never been higher.

“Yesterday was the best ever day for enquiries in the history of our business, and we have been in business for 10 years,” McLaughlin said.

“It beat the record set on Black Friday last year.”

The demand for credit had been driven by the growing acceptance of Black Friday as well as the increase of online shopping.

Cars lined up to get into the Briscoes car park on Black Friday.

“I think people are out there buying on credit because there is a degree of confidence in job security and in the economy,” he said.

Briscoe Group managing director Rod Duke said his stores nationwide were busy.

“I am hearing from my store senior executives, they are in store, and they are telling me that this is most likely to be the biggest single day in the history of the company,” Duke said.

Both Briscoes and Rebel Sport and been popular, he said.

“We are open until midnight. It is possible that we still have lines at 10 pm.”

Duke encouraged shoppers to be patient.

“I can’t have enough cash registers to do a day like this justice. There are queues but I think the value is big enough. So people just need to be a bit patient, which they have been so far.”

Sylvia Park centre manager Helen Ronald said the mall had been busy across the board.

“As I stand here looking down, I can see bags from 40 different retailers. It’s fashion but there are also a lot of Noel Leeming bags, The Warehouse bags,” she said.

While Black Friday was busy, Ronald believed Boxing Day would still be the shopping centre’s biggest day this year.

“Boxing day is one out of the box and it always is. Everyone has their vouchers. But Black Friday is a great day for people to come and do their Christmas shopping,” Ronald said.

“But you have to remember, it’s Friday. A lot of people are at work. Where as Boxing Day is really a family day.”