Australian retailers expect bumper sales
26-12-2008
Thousands of Australian shoppers rushed to department stores Friday to pick up post-Christmas bargains, leaving retailers predicting bumper sales despite the economic crisis. Crowds gathered outside major shops in Sydney, Melbourne and other major cities hours before the dors opened from 5:00 am, to be the first to snap up the traditional Boxing Day discounts. "We probably had two or three thousand people come through the door when we first opened," Andrew Vaz, regional manager for department store Myer, told national news agency AAP. "It certainly exceeded our expectations." The Australian Retailers Association said sales were likely to top A$6.3 billion dollars (US$4.3 billion) - a two percent increase on last year - in the next two weeks as those not normally drawn to sales splash out.
