Slow start to Boxing Day - and then they came

Boxing Day shoppers at Sylvia Park. Photo / Steven McNicholl.

Husbands and boyfriends lounged on chairs while their other halves dipped in and out of shops that were offering up to 50 per cent discounts.

Teenagers were everywhere - only the brave competing with them in clothing stores such as Cotton On, where bargains had them packed wall to wall.

These were the Boxing Day sales at Sylvia Park, Auckland - but the scenes were re-created at malls and shopping districts around the country.

After a slow start, every one of the 4000 car parks was filled by 1pm, with many shoppers doing the carpark shuffle up and down lanes looking for any opening.

For Aniva Petersen, 15, from Mangere, the sales were her idea of fun. Nine members of her family had come together - all female except one.

Aniva said she was on a mission. "I've bought a new cellphone and now I'm looking for clothes and something for my sister's birthday. I love the sales. Christmas was boring, so today was a chance to come out and keep looking."

Glen Innes 6-year-old Anthia Schwenke had bags full of new dresses.

Said her mother, Kesa Edward: "She wants to put them on as soon as we get in the car. She's had a good time today."

The lucky shoppers were those who arrived early, before the masses came.

Steve Gavin was wondering why he'd pushed himself to get up so early.

He was at Sylvia Park at 9.40am, but the crowds were not as bad as he thought they would be. It felt like any other weekend, he said.

Even waiting in a short line to enter Michael Hill Jewellers to buy a watch for his partner wasn't too tedious.

"This is my first Boxing Day at the sales. Usually we don't get out of bed until 10. It's been a complete waste of time getting up early. It's definitely a normal day here."

However, the day got busier ... and hotter.

Noel Leeming's storeman Pole Hale, 19, was ferrying heavily discounted big-screen televisions out to customers' cars. "It's been real busy. I'm getting a work-out, man."

Sylvia Park centre manager Jonathan Douglas said that although he hadn't spoken to retailers, he thought tills would probably have been ringing up sales on a par with last year's results.

Westfield NZ spokeswoman Deb McGhie said she could not comment on sales volumes as that data wouldn't be available until the middle of next month.

However, she said it was proving a busy day in most centres with eager bargain-hunters, including lots of people redeeming vouchers given as Christmas gifts.

Paymark, which processes 75 per cent of the country's electronic transactions, said it expected today to have figures on Boxing Day spending.