Shoppers notch up highest spending day on record

Last-minute Kiwi shoppers spent more than $370 million at the weekend. Photo / Michael Craig

Kiwi shoppers notched up the highest spending day on record yesterday, swiping through more than $250 million worth of card transactions.

Paymark figures for December 23 showed a whopping $255 million was spent across the country yesterday - up 8.8 per cent on the same day last year.

The number of transactions per second also notched up a new record - peaking at 156 per second at 12.35pm today. The figure surpassed the previous record of 148 transactions per second recorded in 2013.

Paymark spokesman Mark Spicer said the figures indicated people were leaving Christmas shopping until the last minute.

"To give some sense of the change in the last few days, spending this Tuesday was up 45.1 per cent on last Tuesday.

"In terms of annual growth, spending at supermarkets and other food stores yesterday was up 12.7 per cent on the same day last year."

Purchases for the home received a particular focus yesterday, with spending at furniture and floor covering stores up 19.9 per cent on the same time last year. Spending on hardware also saw a year-on-year increase, up 7.7 per cent, as did book and video stores, which were up 9.8 per cent.

Clothing, apparel and jewellery stores also saw a modest increase of 2.6 per cent.