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Last-minute Christmas chaos: it's what retailers have waited for - and waited for.
With two days until the big day, retailers were yesterday banking on the hordes of people who had left their Christmas shopping to the last minute.
Auckland's Sylvia Park shopping centre saw a steady stream of shoppers through the doors, but it was still not busy enough for shopkeepers.
Just Jeans store manager Maggie Chan said the number of people coming through the store had dropped significantly.
"People just don't have any money. It hasn't been busy. The foot-traffic has been okay but even the midnight sales - which are usually packed - haven't been busy."
Her comments would seem to be born out by electronic transaction figures. Paymark - which processes more than three-quarters of all in-store electronic transactions - estimates New Zealanders spent a total of $2.7 billion for the first three weeks of December - well short of the $4 billion spent last year.
With the remaining three days of pre-Christmas spend yet to be tallied, it is unlikely that total pre-Christmas sales will match last year.
At Westfield 277 in the shopping mecca of Newmarket, retailers said there had initially been a slow start to the Christmas shopping season, with customers only now hitting the stores.
Barkers roving store manager Gianni-Rose Hamilton said conditions were "not like the normal years. People are being a little bit more careful and are keeping to their budgets".
Christmas sales can account for up to a third of a retailer's total yearly turnover, so a poor performance this season will compound what has been a difficult year for them.
Retailers Association chief executive John Albertson is hoping that Christmas falling on a Thursday will see a late surge in spending, as it did when it last occurred in 2003.
