It's retail's biggest day of the year and COVID-19 isn't expected to slow things down for Boxing Day sales at Charlestown Square this year.
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Almost 65,000 people flocked to the shopping centre on December 26 last year to check out the post-Christmas bargains, and centre manager Mardi Ashkine is expecting a similar number on Saturday.
"It's by far the busiest and biggest shopping day of the year, driven by the fact stores are generally all on sale," Ms Ashkine said.
"Discounting across brands will be really going hard with up to 50-60 per cent off.
"There's also discounts on new season stock as opposed to clearance stock."
Australian shoppers are set to drop a record $2.75 billion, according to National Retail Association figures, for what is anticipated to be the biggest Boxing Day sale in a decade.
Ms Ashkine said traffic at Charlestown Square was tracking on par with last year with the exception of the night time economy due to the cinema's audience restrictions and lack of new releases.
But strong attendance is also expected there this year, with Wonder Woman 1984 set for release in cinemas on Saturday.
Things may look a bit different to Boxing Day 2019 though, with limits on each individual store due to coronavirus restrictions.
"We have to manage that," Ms Ashkine said.
"Sometimes people may have to wait in line. Maintaining social distancing is really important.
"We were really interested to see how the Black Friday sales went as test for that, which was pleasing - people were doing the right things.
"There's plenty of signage around, a lot of awareness. People know what the rules are."
Ms Ashkine said she had noticed increased mask use in the centre with the recent outbreak in Sydney, but the measure would not be mandatory for shoppers in line with NSW Government guidelines.
The day should be a good chance for a recovery after some of the centre's shops were forced to close during the year at the height of the pandemic.
Online shopping helped keep the retail industry afloat, and that trend is also set to continue for Boxing Day with $930 million in digital sales predicted across the country.
While online shopping has changed the nature of consumer spending in recent years, Ms Ashkine said many shoppers still enjoyed going out to buy a physical product, particularly after Christmas.
"People end up getting money for Christmas to spend and gift cards," she said.
"They want their product there and then."
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