Dunedin resident Hannah Freeman was out making the most of the Boxing Day sales in central Dunedin yesterday.
With her twin daughters Addison and Blair, Mrs Freeman had purchased pyjamas, along with a pair of black Crocs for her husband, Dyson.
Shops had been extremely busy, with people everywhere and passengers from two visiting cruise ships adding to the "chaos," Ms Freeman said.
Jonathan’s Photo Warehouse salesperson Kieran Dodd said business had been pretty steady, which was "good to see".
Customers had been split evenly between cruise ships passengers and locals, who had been buying all sorts of items, including cameras, accessories and disposable cameras — and lots of film.
There had been no major surprises and the day was on par with previous Boxing Days, Mr Dodd said.
AS Colour second in charge Liam Clune said staff were looking forward to a pizza lunch put on by the company as a thanks for them working through the day.
"Looking down the street, it’s just packed," Mr Clune said.
The store had been pretty busy and the staff had been handling the demand well, although he had expected things might have been even busier.
The Scottish Shop sales assistant Erin Hogan said things had been "certainly a lot busier now," compared to last year when there were no cruise ship visits.
The first two sales of the day had weirdly enough been walking sticks, but that trend had not continued throughout the day.
The ships in town yesterday had an older demographic which brought more mature customers
Staff were keeping busy and customers were enjoying the sunny weather, Ms Hogan said.
I Love Merino Dunedin owner Colin Lim said the shop had been full all morning but things tailed off in the early afternoon, although he was expecting another surge later in the day.
Pretty much all their customers had been from cruise ships, as tourists were their target market.
"It’s good to have them back."
