Otago retailers are today expecting a ''hectic'' time as Boxing Day sales pull in the crowds despite a record-breaking pre-Christmas spend-up.
A shopping blitz leading up to Christmas pumped $225 million through the Paymark network - the country's biggest spending day on electronic transactions.
That was 8.8% up on December 23 the previous year and Otago shoppers were ahead of the national average with a 9.6% rise on 2013.
About $13.6 million went through Otago eftpos machines on Tuesday, compared with $25 million in Canterbury (11.3% up) and $6.1 million (0.9%) in Southland.
Figures for Christmas Eve shopping - traditionally one of the busiest retail days of the year, followed by the Boxing Day sales - are not available until tomorrow.
Last year, Boxing Day sales smashed records with a 12% increase in spending, up $14.4 million on the same day last year. In Otago, Boxing Day spending was up 7% to $7.5 million.
Paymark's customer relations head Mark Spicer said the figures indicated more people left 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% on last Tuesday. In terms of annual growth, spending at supermarkets and other food stores yesterday was up 12.7% on the same day last year.''
Consumers remained focused on homes on Tuesday, with strong spending seen in furniture and floor-covering stores. This particular sector registered a 19.9% increase on last year, while hardware was up 7.7% on the same day last year.
Elsewhere, the pattern remains mixed, with spending at book and video stores up 9.8% while clothing, apparel and jewellery spending was up a modest 2.6%.
Otago Chamber of Commerce retail committee chairman Alan Preston said generally it had been a good Christmas for retail, and businesses were expecting a busy day today.
''There is lots going on, which is a good thing.''
Farmers Dunedin assistant store manager of operations Kim Greig said she was expecting today to be the store's biggest sale day of the year.
''We getting all the stock to the floor because we're preparing for it to be quite a massive day for us.''
The pre-Christmas period had gone well, despite ''the odd slow one'' but overall company sales were up 2% for the month.
''We've been really pleased with the sales.''
Dunedin sales were down 1% on last year, though the company's overall sales were up 2%.
''There's been a good amount of people in the store, a nice constant trade pretty much every day for the last three weeks.''
Mitre 10 Mega Dunedin retail manager Mike Pattinson was also expecting a ''very busy'' day in the store today, especially if the weather was goodThe Christmas period was busy, particularly the final three ''fabulous'' days, although the season had been a bit slow to start, because of the poor weather. Arthur Barnett store supervisor Caz Gray said they were anticipating a ''hectic'' Boxing Day.
''That is probably our busiest day of the year. That's when staff are run off their feet. It should be quite awesome.''
Not only do people come to shop but to exchange items, she said.
''They have had gift vouchers given to them so it's their big spend-up day.''
Staff had definitely noticed the impact of Christmas, especially with giftware, fragrances and in the homeware department.
