Queen St v Newmarket: Pedestrian gap huge

Auckland pedestrian counts outnumber Newmarket by eight times.

Retail pedestrian data from the Property Institute shows that on one mainly fine day in October two years ago, 32,198 people trod Queen St and a few surrounding streets.

The readings were taken for two half-hour periods, just before and just after lunch.

Across in Newmarket, just 3997 people were counted, compared with 4793 in Takapuna, 3125 in Manukau, 2413 in Henderson and 588 in New Lynn.

Newmarket advocate Cameron Brewer puts little stock by the numbers. He believes the Queen St walkers were mostly workers, not shoppers. Over his way, the pedestrians are serious, wealthy spenders.

"All the Newmarket pedestrians have shopping bags but the Queen St pedestrians have student packs or briefcases," he said.

Auckland CBD advocate Alex Swney supplied the figures as evidence of Queen St's continuing importance as the powerhouse of the region's retailing. Despite predictions the centre would loose its influence to the suburbs, Swney said, Queen St retail spending was as strong as ever.

Russell Sinclair, northern regional manager for the Retailers Association, said people should be careful with the figures because not all pedestrians were shoppers.

Statistics NZ said shops in Auckland City Council's boundaries pulled in $8.3 billion in retail sales last year - 43 per cent of the region's sales and 15 per cent of the nation's sales.

Last year, Aucklanders' retail spend was $10,534 each.