Queensland shoppers to spend $420 million on Boxing Day sales

Thousands of savvy shoppers will flock to Townsville shops today in the hope of picking up a bargain on one of the busiest days for retail sales.

THOUSANDS of savvy shoppers will flock to Townsville shops today in the hope of picking up a bargain on one of the busiest days for retail sales.

The annual Boxing Day sales on December 26 have become a highlight on every shoppers’ calendar.

According to National Retail Association CEO Dominique Lamb, this Boxing Day is predicted to be a record-breaking shopping blitz.

“The National Retail Association forecasts that Aussie shoppers will splash more than $2.6 billion in cash nationwide, eclipsing all previous Boxing Day sales records,” she said.

“Queenslanders will spend an estimated $420 million.”

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A spokesman for Stockland Townsville Shopping Centre said the Boxing Day shopping atmosphere was unbeatable.

“Our Stockland Christmas survey this year has supported this, with 81 per cent of the 1170 respondents saying that they will continue to purchase a majority of their gifts at a physical store,” he said.

“We believe you can’t beat the experience of coming to a centre with friends and family to shop, dine and socialise.”

Willows marketing manager Donna Schifilliti said the shopping complex was expecting records to be broken.

“We have some fantastic bargains on offer and we are expecting strong retail sales and positive customer traffic with an uplift from last year,” she said.

“We had 22,000 shoppers through the door last year and we are anticipating record crowds of 25,000 this year.”

Ms Schifilliti said bargain hunters would not be disappointed with the deals on offer.

“There will be centre-wide savings … and we expect some of these offers to be just as strong or stronger than the Black Friday sales.”

Townsville Chamber of Commerce president Michele Falconieri reminded shoppers not to forget the stores outside of major shopping hubs.

“There are local businesses in our shopping centres but remember to also support the retail shops that are not in shopping centres,” he said.

“Your speciality stores and your mum and dad stores, so your medium-sized stores, these are the ones that start communities and start towns and start cities.”

Originally published as Queensland shoppers to spend $420 million on Boxing Day sales