Shoppers swarmed central Dunedin looking for bargains, but some retailers say Boxing Day sales are down from last year.
George St was chocker after lunchtime with patrons looking for discounts on a variety of items including clothes and electronics.
However, retailers said not as many purchases were being made in comparison to previous years.
Macpac store manager Minimol Sudheesh had worked at the George St store for the past four years and said the previous year was a lot busier than the current one.
Sales were about 30% down.
“Last year it was much busier, but this time it’s a bit more slower if you look at the numbers.”
Last year, the queues were very long and the cash till was busy non-stop, whereas there had been periods where it was quiet yesterday, she said.
“[Last year] it just went constantly until closing. This year, we have had slow times.”
On average, customers purchased about $500 worth of goods last year, whereas this year it was more in the $60-$70 range.
“People are very choosy this time even though the discounts are good.”
The recent cancellation of cruise ships in the holiday season had also led to a “butterfly effect” in the retail sector, Mrs Sudheesh said.
She planned her day according to the cruise ship calendar by hiring extra staff to accommodate more customers but missed out on sales when they did not arrive.
Hallensteins had had about 1000 customers come through by 2pm, assistant manager Shaun Rizvi said.
Although it had been “super busy”, it was still less busy than last year.
“I feel like people are tending to shop online more.”
He felt it had not been as busy in the buildup to Christmas either.
When the cruise ships came in, the store was normally packed but when there were no cruise ships, it was business as usual.
Boxing Day shopper Andrew Medlicotte had bought a pair of headphones and ear phones from Meridian Mall’s outlet of JB Hi-Fi.
He said he had waited about three months to get new ear pieces to capitalise on the Boxing Day discounts.
He would have saved about $75 on the headset.
The microphone had stopped working on his old headset and it was an issue communicating when he played video games online with his sister who had emigrated to the Netherlands in 2020.
Another shopper at Meridian Mall, Mitchell Pala, was out and about with his wife and daughter looking for specials on clothes.
He had also waited for Boxing Day to go shopping with his family.
He preferred Boxing Day to Black Friday because it fell on a public holiday and he had time off work to go shopping.
It was worth the wait to buy the clothes for himself because he got some good deals, Mr Pala said.