{"id":366093,"date":"2025-12-23T06:16:11","date_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:16:11","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366093\/"},"modified":"2025-12-23T06:16:11","modified_gmt":"2025-12-23T06:16:11","slug":"christmas-shoppers-fight-the-crowds-to-finish-celebration-preparations","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/366093\/","title":{"rendered":"Christmas shoppers fight the crowds to finish celebration preparations"},"content":{"rendered":"

Shoppers have swarmed to markets and shops around the country in the lead-up to Christmas, with seafood and fresh produce among the hot-ticket items.<\/p>\n

Australians are expected to spend $72.4 billion in the lead-up to Christmas, according to forecasts by the Australian Retail Association.<\/p>\n

It means Christmas shoppers this year will spend $757 on average, a 7.1 per cent jump from last year.<\/p>\n

Shoppers were out in force in Sydney, where the annual Christmas 36-hour seafood marathon got underway in Pyrmont for the final time.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

This year will be the Sydney Fish Market’s final Christmas in Pyrmont before it moves to a new $700 million complex (ABC News: Jak Rowland)<\/p>\n

From 5am this morning until 5pm on Christmas Eve the Sydney Fish Market is open non-stop, with more than 100 species of seafood on sale and 100,000 customers expected through the doors.<\/p>\n

The fish market is expected to sell about 350,000 kilograms of seafood, including 120,000kgs of prawns and 840,000 oysters.<\/p>\n

This year marks the 30th anniversary of the annual tradition, and the last before the market moves to Blackwattle Bay in January<\/a>.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The government-owned land at the old fish market site in Pyrmont has been slated for residential development, with up to 1,200 homes on the horizon. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)<\/p>\n

Gold Coast resident Bruce is visiting Sydney for Christmas, and made an early start on Tuesday to beat the crowds and stock up on seafood.<\/p>\n

“Got up at about 5am to fight traffic and we finally made it,” he said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve got about 5 kilos of prawns, seven dozen oysters, two lobsters, a lot of sashimi and not much money left.”<\/p>\n

\"Prawns<\/p>\n

The Sydney Fish Market will be slinging seafood for 36 hours straight in the lead-up to Christmas. (ABC News: Jak Rowland)<\/p>\n

For some, the mission to beat the crowds at the fish market required a couple of days of forward planning.<\/p>\n

Fitzroy Falls resident Virginia made the journey to Sydney from the Southern Highlands yesterday and stayed overnight, as part of an annual pilgrimage to the fish markets.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Virginia says a trip to the Sydney Fish Market is a yearly tradition. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

“Our tradition is to always come to the Sydney Fish Market, and of course we have our oysters, we have our salmon, we have specialty peaches that have been requested by members of the family,” she said.<\/p>\n

“We’ve come to the fish markets every year. We celebrate our 50-year wedding anniversary in January, so we’ve been doing it for 50 years.”<\/p>\n

Christmas rush sees a quarter-million shoppers at Melbourne market<\/p>\n

Melbourne’s Queen Victoria Market was abuzz with activity on Tuesday, with shoppers stocking up on supplies.<\/p>\n

\"Shoppers<\/p>\n

Thousands of shoppers have descended on markets and shops around the country to stock up for Christmas lunch. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n

Queen Victoria Market chief executive Matt Elliot said the excitement was palpable as shoppers arrived in their thousands.<\/p>\n

“It’s always the most magnificent time of year, we’ve probably welcomed over 250,000 Melburnians this last week before Christmas,” he said.<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

The beef came highly recommended at Queen Victoria Market. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n

“I just love this chaos, in terms of everyone coming together, big smiles on faces.”<\/p>\n

About 20,000kg of ham, 14,500kg of turkey and 45,000kg of cherries are expected to be sold at the market in the run-up to Christmas.<\/p>\n

\"Two<\/p>\n

The cherries were looking ripe at the market on Tuesday. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n

Ange said she shopped at the market once a month and was not put off by the Christmas crowds.<\/p>\n

“You’ve gotta battle the crowd if you want the good stuff,” she said.<\/p>\n

“Deli, meats, all the fruit and veg \u2014 we’re getting them here today.”<\/p>\n

\"A<\/p>\n

Shopper Ange brought her own hand trolley to collect her Christmas haul. (ABC News: Nate Woodall)<\/p>\n

Brisbane shoppers get an early start<\/p>\n

Brisbane’s Queen Street Mall was a hive of activity, with thousands stopping by to secure last-minute gifts for Christmas.<\/p>\n

Some shoppers, like Jo Ford, said a rising cost of living meant they needed to shop smarter this silly season.<\/p>\n

“I had to plan earlier, so I knew what I needed to save earlier and then ending up spending earlier,” Jo said.<\/p>\n

“So just a last few bits and pieces left to get today.”<\/p>\n

\"Jo<\/p>\n

Jo and Mel Ford picked up some last-minute items for Christmas. (ABC News)<\/p>\n

Mother-of-two Supna Sandhu said the secret to savings was buying up big during Black Friday sales.<\/p>\n

“I got it all out of the way in November,” she said<\/p>\n

“You’ve got to do it Black Friday! That’s when we do all of our shopping.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Shoppers have swarmed to markets and shops around the country in the lead-up to Christmas, with seafood and…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":366094,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[64,63,99,5503,1295,5023,39916,7240],"class_list":["post-366093","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-business","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-business","tag-christmas","tag-food","tag-holiday","tag-presents","tag-shopping"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366093","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=366093"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/366093\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/366094"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=366093"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=366093"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=366093"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}