Christmas Eve sees shopping surge

The Warehouse was there for the final pre-Christmas retail fling.

A last minute shopping spurge has put a smile back on the faces of Auckland retailers. The mad dash was on yesterday for people who left their purchasing right until Christmas Eve.

At the Auckland store Camera and Camera, manager Stewart McLean said he's pleased with this year's sales. He said the figures are down slightly from three or four years ago, but still look very healthy.

Early in the afternoon he was expecting plenty more people through the doors before the day was through.

Friday's problems with the EFTPOS system didn't deter people from shopping yesterday. A hardware fault had put the system out of action for just over two hours.

Mr McLean said it was a one off problem, and it didn't put shoppers off. He said there were back up procedures which could be used if there had been another problem.

Mr McLean said overall he is pleased with the way Christmas trading has gone this year.

While many stores were open until 6pm last night, retailer The Warehouse went further by keeping its doors open until 8pm, offering a last-minute gift buying solution for even the most extreme of procrastinators.

- NEWSTALK ZB, HERALD ONLINE STAFF