For Nichols Garden Centre Dunedin, Saturday was the busiest day of the three-day weekend. It was also perhaps the busiest single day in the store's history, duty manager Stuart Brown said.
''It was humming.''
Sales were heavily influenced by weather, Mr Brown said.
Labour Weekend was traditionally when Dunedin residents planted vegetables.
Young people's interest in growing their own fruit and vegetables was helping sales, he said.
Kereen Power, of Dunedin, who was at the garden centre with family yesterday, said she bought strawberry, snow pea and silverbeet plants, potatoes and mushroom compost.
She and her husband planted the vegetables in their garden yesterday.
''The rain hadn't come to much - and it was not hot - so it was good for planting.''
A spokesman for Mitre 10 Mega Dunedin said the store's weekend sales were solid, but ''not fantastic''.
The store was ahead of its sales targets, but would like to be busier, he said.
Farmers Dunedin manager Shelly Gilchrist said the store experienced steady demand, but had expected to be busier.
Mrs Gilchrist said many people considered Labour Weekend their last chance to get away for a long weekend before Christmas, making the retail sector quieter.
''It was a good steady weekend, but not outstanding,'' she said.
JB Hi-Fi duty manager Jared Dixon said the Meridian mall store was a ''little bit'' busier over the weekend than he had expected.
