Newcastle shoppers were finalising purchases bright and early on Wednesday morning, when most would have opted for a post-Christmas sleep in.
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Bargain hunters had already descended on Charlestown Square and Kotara Westfield by 8am on Boxing Day.
Sarah Sylvester, the centre manager of Kotara Westfield, said there were “hundreds” of people in the shopping complex before stores opened.
Boxing Day is the biggest day of trading for the centre.
“It’s definitely bigger than last year,” Ms Sylvester said.
Queues had formed outside Zara and Lush by 7.45am, she said. The two shops opened at 8am.
David Jones was also busy in its first hour of trading.
“David Jones opened at 7, there is certainly already line ups at the counter,” Ms Sylvester said.
“The coffee shops are packed. Everyone is wearing their comfortable shoes.”
Dwight Hodgetts, the manager of Charlestown Square, said he was expecting between 70,000 and 80,000 people to come through the centre’s doors on Wednesday.
“It’s not the biggest trading day for numbers. Our biggest day is prior to Christmas, probably last Thursday when we traded till midnight.
“But people come today in a more compressed time frame,” he said.
There were “no massive queues” before stores opened at 8am, Mr Hodgetts said.
“There were people here early but the shopper works out what time they want to come and what bargains they want to pick up.
“Myers is always very busy,” he said.
“We also find there is a lot of people getting gift cards for Christmas using them at sales. And that’s pretty spread across the centre.”
The malls return to normal trading hours on Thursday.
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