Australian retailers expect bumper sales despite crisis

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SYDNEY, Dec 27 (AFP): Thousands of Australian shoppers rushed to department stores today 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 doors 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 6.3 billion dollars (4.3 billion US) -- a 2.0 per cent increase on last year-in the next two weeks as those not normally drawn to sales splashed out.
The association's executive director Richard Evans said retailers had had a tough year as consumers felt the pinch of higher petrol prices and mortgage repayments amid financial uncertainty.
But shoppers appeared to have shrugged off concerns about the global economic gloom to part with their money for heavily reduced items in the post-Christmas sales, he said.
Evans said shoppers would also be encouraged by the Australian government's 10.4 billion dollar fiscal stimulus package, which has given one- off payments to pensioners and middle- and lower-income families.
But he said he didn't expect this to have a real impact until April or May because there was often a time lag between consumers having more money and spending it.
The Australian National Retailers Association said shoppers were out in force on Friday to snap up bargains following heavy pre-Christmas discounting.
"Boxing Day is shaping up as the biggest shopping day of the year, with a rush for everything from shoes to lawnmowers giving a shot in the arm to retailers large and small," chief executive Margy Osmond said.
Osmond said that the depreciating Australian dollar, which has dropped from more than 98 US cents to less than 70 US cents since mid-year and which will make imported goods more expensive, had encouraged shoppers.
Major department store chain David Jones estimates it will sell one million business shirts, half a million towels and 100,000 pairs of shoes in the post- Christmas sales.