Shopping centres plagued by Boxing Day sales traffic chaos
Despite Christmas being less than 24 hours ago, shoppers have spent big at Boxing Day sales across the country with many lining up at stores to be among the first through the doors.
VIC News
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Bags were overflowing as shoppers across Melbourne scrambled to pick up a bargain in the Boxing Day sales.
But there was a price to pay by those after a little post-Christmas retail therapy.
Traffic chaos came to the Monash Freeway as thousands of shoppers made the mad dash to Chadstone and cars were backed up in both directions for the Warrigal Rd exit.
The struggles continued instore at Myer, which suffered an Eftpos machine crash at several stores.
A spokesman for the retail giant said all its Boxing Day sales offers would be extended until today to compensate.
“We had an issue with EFTPOS which affected payments in a number of stores for a short time intermittently this afternoon, with registers still able to take cash payments,” the spokesman said.
It is understood the system outage — which lasted about an hour — was unrelated to similar issues at the stores earlier this month.
Shoppers burst through the doors at Myer on Bourke Street at 5am, keen to snap up a bargain at the annual sales.
About 200 people gathered outside the store in the early hours.
Skin care, shoes and designer outfits were among the big ticket items.
Wendy Norris, 44, and daughter Pippi, 13, travelled from Newtown in Geelong to get their hands on a pair of Tommy Hilfiger sneakers.
“We’ve come from Geelong, we’ve been up since 3am and got here about 4am,” Mrs Norris said.
“We had our eye on a pair of Tommy Hilfiger shoes and got them — these were the last in my size.”
26/12 - R903- Due to Heavy traffic around Chadstone Shopping Centre services towards Mordialloc will be bypassing Chadstone Shopping centre . Passengers are advised to make their way to stops on Warrigal Rd and join services there. Apologies for inconvenience
— Transdev Melbourne (@Transdev_Melb) December 26, 2019
Meenu Singh, from Williams Landing, said she had been going to the sales at Myer for six years.
The 35-year-old had her eye on some Estée Lauder perfume, which she snapped up for almost half price.
“It’s the best time to come in the morning … you’re done and dusted early,” Ms Singh said.
“I stack up for my whole year — perfume, presents.’
David Jones opened its doors an hour later at 6am, with queues lining up down Bourke Street.
Heavily reduced designer bags — some discounted between 30 and 50 per cent off — were a crowd favourite.
Hordes of shoppers snapped up a bargain downstairs, while others headed up towards shoes and electronics.
Eilis Rayworth, 23 from Carlton, brought a Proenza Schouler designer bag worth more than $2000.
She would not disclose how much she paid, but said it was “hundreds” in savings.
“It’s just tradition. Every year me, mum and my aunty come just to browse,” she said.
“We did buy the same bag though so mum and I will be matching this summer.”
This was the line up to get into Chadstone shops at 6:00am. Monash freeway backed up past Huntingdale rd already pic.twitter.com/wkykIhG6Cf
— Vince Diesel (@XXXX_G0LD) December 25, 2019
Doors have opened at @myer Bourke Street early this morning with about 200 shoppers lined up to grab a bargain at today’s Boxing Day sales. @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/4M6vRVO6qQ
— Alanah Frost (@akfrost_) December 25, 2019
Executive Director of the Australian Retailers Association, Russell Zimmerman, said despite a slow start the forecasted spending was “on the mark”.
As of Thursday afternoon, overall spend was on track to hit $2.5 billion — a figure which was helped by retailers staying open late, Mr Zimmerman said.
“It’s fair to say it started off really slow, I was a bit worried (yesterday) morning,” Mr Zimmerman said.
“But by 10.30, it started to pick up and continued throughout the day,” he said, adding shopping centres were among the busiest retailers.
VicRoads spokesman John Lindsay said traffic was banked up from 7am along the Monash Freeway from Huntingdale Road as shoppers tried to make their way to Chadstone. Speeds were dropped to 60km/h.
Mr Lindsay said similar delays occurred at the Essendon DFO, with queues on the Tullamarine Freeway at the Bulla Road exit.
Boxing Day Sales: Lines are now building outside David Jones on Bourke St with doors to open at 6am. @theheraldsun pic.twitter.com/180idMJtuI
— Alanah Frost (@akfrost_) December 25, 2019
Highett’s Aydin Stern, 22, arrived at Chadstone just after 6am and said the centre was already packed.
“There were so many people there and virtually every designer store and Zara and all of the main stores that weren’t open yet had lines, there were so many people trying to get to them,” he said.
“For Gucci the line was four stores down.”
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He said trying to look through the shops was an “absolute nightmare”.
“You couldn’t look through anything without a million hands on you,” Mr Stern said.
“It kind of looked like trying to get into the MCG before a major sporting event.”
Bargain hunters at Doncaster Westfield were circling the car park for about one hour on average before nabbing a spot.
Doncaster’s Deelan Ramjee, 30, said the car park had been “extremely” busy.
“The car park filled up so fast,” he said.
The shopper said it was hard to even walk through the centre.
“It’s been so busy with lines outside certain stores like Lush, Kookai and JD sports,” Mr Ramjee said.