Bargain hunters battle queues

Boxing day bargain-hunters were met with extended traffic queues, cars parked on grass verges and long lines for the till on Saturday.

Paymark figures released yesterday showed the Bay of Plenty spent $11.4 million on Boxing Day, 13.1 per cent up on last year. Data collected on Christmas Eve showed $18.7m was spent in the lead-up to Christmas.

Shoppers were out in force on Boxing day. When the Bay of Plenty Times visited Bayfair, extended traffic queues blocked the Bayfair roundabout, while cars were parked on the grass verge surrounding the shopping centre. Stores within the mall had long lines of customers with Kmart's line reaching around the exterior of the shop as hundreds waited to pay for items.

Bayfair manager Steve Ellingford said the mall welcomed about 37,000 people. The previous year 38,000 people came through the mall but it was open for an extra two hours.

Mr Ellingford said this year bargain hunters came through the doors early, between 10am and 1pm before heading off to the beach in the afternoon.

The afternoon continued strongly between 2pm and 7pm. Boxing Day shopper Nicola Tisch whipped into Bayfair quickly before heading to the beach.

"We stopped in to change a present but we were pleased to get out of it. It was very overwhelming, we were all pleased to be at the beach afterwards."

Papamoa Plaza centre manager David Hill said there had been the same number of people, if not more, as Christmas Eve -- about 20,000 people.

"It was easily our biggest trading day. It was crazy," Mr Hill said.

"It exceeded our expectations. We were certainly not disappointed, we have some very, very happy retailers."

Paymark CEO Mark Rushworth said while Christmas Eve was always the biggest day of the year, Boxing Day gave retailers an extra boost.

"Boxing Day sales have traditionally been strong and we've seen an increase in spending among cafes and restaurants. Liquor merchants and speciality food outlets have had a strong Boxing Day in particularly, with an increase of 37.7 per cent and 18.3 per cent respectively over last year," he said.

Final data for Christmas Eve showed a strong year with $272.6m spent on what was traditionally the busiest shopping day of the year. On Christmas Eve 2014, $263.5m was processed via Paymark.

Fraser Cove and Bethlehem Town Centre did not respond by the time the Bay of Plenty Times went to print.