Thousands of locals hit the shopping centres in lead-up to Christmas
Crowds are starting to flock to local shopping centres as the big countdown begins to Christmas.
Townsville
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CROWDS are starting to flock to local shopping centres as the big countdown begins to Christmas.
All three of Townsville’s major shopping centres are experiencing a surge in customer numbers as locals start gearing up to get their Christmas gifts in order before the big day.
Willows, Castletown and Stockland shopping centres all have extended trading hours between now and Christmas Eve, and managers from the shopping centres say crowds are starting to picking up pace.
“We’ve had very strong Christmas traffic over the past couple of weeks, and we expect another surge over the weekend and in the last days leading up to Christmas Day,” Willows Shopping Centre marketing manager Donna Schifilliti said.
“We’ll be having extended hours for customers to shop at their convenience, and the centre’s pumping with excitement at the moment.
“There’s a nice festival feel and there’s plenty happening.
“We have the Queensland Cancer Council doing gift wrapping for a gold coin donation, and we’ll have our Willows Christmas Rooms as well which includes photo booths.”
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Castletown centre manager Katherine Langsford said she is expecting a huge influx of shoppers in the last days before Christmas.
“Tens of thousands of customers will flow through the doors in the final week leading up to Christmas,” she said.
“All the latest toys are available for the little ones and customers can enjoy a much needed coffee break at one of our many cafes.”
One of the most popular items on people’s shopping lists are inflatable pools as they try to find some respite from the hot weather during Christmas.
Toy World at Domain Central has been selling about 10 inflatable pools each day and that does not even include online sales.
Store manager Karina Cripps said there had been increased demand because of the heat and it would not stop until February or March.
“We’re selling the smaller inflatable pools for both genders across the board, and mainly the blow up ones to keep the little ones cool,” she said.
“People can put them on a veranda out of the sun.”
Ms Cripps said the store would be restocking in January to keep up with demand for all things pool related.
“New Year’s Day is when people buy a lot of pool stuff, pool toys such as rings and balls, we’ve got beach cricket sets that far outsell the normal cricket ones,” she said.
“There’s that huge increase in sales every year around summer as people use the pools to get outside and out from being in the aircon all day.”
Evelyn Waller, Bethany Fraser and Elyse Sweeney said the key to their shopping success at Stockland yesterday was getting in before the midday rush.
“It’s very peaceful today because we got in early,” Elyse said.
“For us it’s fun with the sisters.
“The aircon is nice, and the parking was easy.”
Originally published as Thousands of locals hit the shopping centres in lead-up to Christmas
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