KEY POINTS:
The sign at the Albany Mega Centre said it all - "End of year madness".
The fact cars were parked on grass verges outside the mall was a sign that inside was already overflowing as thousands scrambled for the best deals.
Katie and Michelle Ward, of Mairangi Bay on Auckland's North Shore, were among the thousands who battled through crowds and waited in queues.
Michelle Ward said it was the first time they had tried the Boxing Day sales - and the experience left them exhausted.
But it wasn't the sales that tempted them, she said. "We weren't going to buy anything we didn't need."
They arrived an hour after the mall opened and walked out clutching their shopping bags five hours later.
Katie Ward didn't think the sales were too generous. "Twenty to 15 per cent off isn't that great. You can get that a lot of the time anyway."
A conversation she overhead between a parent and a child seemed to sum up the day.
"The parent was saying 'yesterday was your day, now it's our turn'."
Other shoppers said they knew it would be busy but the shopping had to be done. "I'm going away for New Year's so there's things I wanted to buy before then," Tessa Maclean said.
She knew the sales usually lasted for a few days but wanted to get in before stock began to sell out. "[But] I think everyone else seems to have had the same idea."
Kat, from JB Hi-Fi, said there was a mob standing outside the doors waiting to be let in yesterday morning. "That's the only way to describe it. As soon as we opened about 40 people just ran in."
About 250 people were in the store when the Weekend Herald visited and she said it had been crazy all day.
"It's almost like people wait a day to buy their Christmas presents."
The jam-packed scenes were repeated at malls and shopping strips across the country. Cameron Brewer, of the Newmarket Business Association, said the crowds on Broadway yesterday were unprecedented.
"No one can remember a Boxing Day like it. Most of our retailers had queues instore," he said.
The country's largest eftpos company, Paymark, said early figures suggested this year's Boxing Day turnover might be higher than last year's.
Paymark's Paul Whiston said that at the peak of shopping, between noon and 3pm, 220,000 purchases were made.
On Christmas Eve a record $216 million in sales was reported.
* Big deals
A table and chairs that normally had a recommended retail price of $2395 was selling for $695.
A queen-sized bed with a normal price of $1299 was selling for $598.
A 127cm (50-inch) plasma screen television for $1944.
A sofa from Italy was being advertised for $2900, down from $7250.
A Toshiba DVD player was offered for $47.
- ADDITIONAL REPORTING: NZPA
