The changing times of Hawke’s Bay Boxing Day sales

The Emerson St shopping precinct in Napier on Boxing Day, at peak with passengers from two cruise ships in town. Photo / Paul Taylor

Two ships that passed through Napier in the day may have made the day for retailers in Hawke’s Bay’s busiest Boxing Day CBD.

There were two of them, the Celebrity Eclipse, with a capacity of 2850 passengers, berthing about 8am and gone by soon after 2pm, and the Noordam, berthed about 8.30am and departing about 4.30pm.

It created an Emerson St throng at its peak about 12.30pm, by which time the shuttle-buses between the ships and the i-Site on Marine Parade Information were ripping into their return trips to get passengers back on board for the first of the departures.

By soon after 3pm, it was as if they’d never been there, foot-traffic in the precinct depleting to barely a quarter of what it had been three hours earlier.

But there were good memories for two of the CBD’s longest-surviving businessmen, menswear retailer Denis Jeffery, at Jeffery’s for Men, and pharmacist Peter Bailey, at Life Pharmacy, formerly Gahagan’s.

Echoing a street comment from one cruise line visitor, who had noticed the number of CBD businesses which did not appear to be linked to global brands.

“It has been a good day,” Bailey said. “It doesn’t have to be cheapest, not everyone is after a bargain, and out-of-towners seem to appreciate coming seeing independent owner-operators. A lot have been saying that.”

Bailey, who’s been in Emerson St 42 years, including back in the day when almost nothing was open on Boxing Day, had been planning to open at 10am, to give staff time to put the finishing touches to the setting-up that started as customers emptied out about 4pm on Christmas Eve.

But, with people queuing in the street, the doors were opened half-an-hour early, with a particular rush on cough and cold remedies, and Covid test kits.

The major big-box retailers had small numbers at the doors at the opening times, varying from 7.30am to 9am.

Shoppers were citing numerous contributing factors, including the fact that Boxing Day sales have now become Boxing Week sales, and the comparatively recent advent of the Black Friday sales in November, which are built around the United States’ Thanksgiving Day.

But there are still the last days of December, with three more liners docking, including the giant Ovation of the Seas on Friday.