Hawke's Bay shoppers go barmy for Black Friday deals - Briscoe Group records biggest day in history

Briscoe Group managing director Rod Duke. Photo / Supplied

Hawke's Bay consumers are well and truly sold on the American concept of Black Friday sales, racking up more than $7 million of purchases on credit and debit cards on the day.

Figures from Paymark, which processes about 75 per cent of all electronic transactions, shows Black Friday spending last week rose 14.9 per cent to $7m - nearly $1m up on last year.

Friday's spending was more than double the amount spent in last year's Boxing Day sales by consumers.

Paymark also processed 140,000 transactions on the day in Hawke's Bay - 4.6 per cent up on last year.

Speaking to Hawke's Bay Today, Briscoe Group managing director Rod Duke said this year sales had broken company records nationwide and particularly in Hawke's Bay.

"For us, in Hawke's Bay, the Friday, for the Briscoe group, which is Briscoes and Rebel Sport, it was the biggest single day in the history of the company in Hawke's Bay, while the three days combined were the three biggest consecutive days in the history of the company."

Duke put the growing popularity of Black Friday down to people wanting to get rid of their Christmas shopping early, "all in one hit".

"This is probably the second full year of it. It might have been here in some guise earlier but didn't seem to have momentum but last year it had quite a bit."

Over the past three years, Hawke's Bay consumers have now spent $18.5m on Black Friday, Paymark figures show.

Black Friday is the informal name for the day following Thanksgiving Day in the United States, the fourth Thursday of November. It is historically the US's busiest shopping day of the year.

Black Friday was taken up by New Zealand retailers relatively recently, with The Warehouse, Noel Leeming and Harvey Norman offering Black Friday sales for the past three years.

Napier City Business Inc acting manager Steph Kennard said with more local retailers getting on board this year, the Black Friday concept was "here to stay".

"Black Friday kicked off the start of a very busy Christmas shopping period in Napier's CBD," Kennard said.

"While last year the event seemed to be embraced by national chains offering large discounts across a period of one to four days, we noticed more of our independent stores joining in this year. Judging by the number of people in town, particularly on Friday, we are sure that the Black Friday sale will be here to stay and anticipated by the public," she said.

"Black Friday is now well and truly on the New Zealand retail calendar," a Paymark spokesman said.

"Spending at core non-food retail shops through the Paymark network was 54 per cent higher than spending on the previous Friday and 20 per cent above Black Friday last year."

At $69.7 million, the spending also topped Boxing Day 2017 ($68m), although Boxing Day 2018 will likely surpass both figures.

"Even so, Black Friday and Boxing Day are now of the same order of magnitude – and both are growing in popularity," the spokesman said.