Paymark reveals Kiwis spent $404m on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day shopping spree

A Palmerston North family scooped up a few bargains at Westfield Albany Mall. From left, Emily Horne, Esther Brandon, Diane Horne and Sarah Brandon. Photo / Jason Oxenham

Shoppers spent a record-breaking $404.3 million on Christmas Eve and Boxing Day, according to figures released by Paymark today.

Paymark said Christmas Eve was its biggest day of the year, with Kiwis spending $263.5 million.

And the promise of bargains resulted in $140.8 million of sales yesterday, $6.4 million more than was spent on Boxing Day last year.

Paymark's Head of Customer Relations Mark Spicer said today: "Christmas Eve this year smashed all our records. Not only did we see the highest ever spending value through the network, we also saw the highest number of transactions at 4.8 million."

He said between midday and 1pm, the number of transactions processed per second peaked at 156, compared with 148 transactions per second last year.

In Auckland yesterday, the shopping malls were busy within a short time of the shops opening.

Westfield Albany was packed with shoppers getting deals on electronics, clothing, homeware and footwear.

Cars unable to find parks in the mall's carparks were instead parked on footpaths and berms.

Stores were forced to close doors to customers to avoid over-crowding. Lines formed outside with customers waiting to get in.

Palmerston North mum Diane Horne brought her five daughters along to Westfield Albany to do some shopping while the men in the family went to the cinema.

Daughter Emily Horne, 20, said she had bought a new summer wardrobe in the sales.

"We're from Palmerston North so this is a bit special," she said. "I got some vouchers for Christmas, so it's good to spend them here."

Ms Horne said she was disappointed the jewellery she bought from Pandora hadn't been on sale.

The queue for a till at Briscoes, Albany stretched the length of twelve aisles and was estimated to be about 80 people deep at one point.

Customers with trolleys full of bargains didn't mind the wait, saying the prices were too good to miss.

Aktar Ali, from Fiji, brought his family to the Albany mall in search of a good deal.

He bought his children a PlayStation 4 and some games from JB Hi-Fi and was pleased with a 35 per cent discount. He said the mall was very busy, but the family would keep shopping.

JB Hi-Fi said the TVs and cameras with the best discounts sold out within an hour.

Tessza Kirkovits and Hannah Mosley, both 17, arrived at the mall at 10am. "It was so busy even then," Tessza said, with Hannah adding: "The lines at Valleygirl and K-Mart were crazy, they wrapped around the whole store. In Platypus they were only letting people in one door and out another door."

The two teenagers were pleased with their sale items of mostly clothes.

Jamie Field, 20, chose to shop the Boxing Day sales for items he wouldn't have normally purchased for himself.

He found some wheel hub caps for a good price, but he wasn't so sure he got any discount on a pair of jandals.

Jason Woodland, National Operations Support Manager, said Dick Smith in Riccarton was far ahead of any other store around the country for sales.
He said the store was making what an average store in Australia would make.

The most popular items sold were TVs and it was too early to tell whether this year had been better than last, he said.