Artist impressions of how the Countdown Supermarket at the new Showgrounds Hill development will look.
The go-ahead for a retail development for Showgrounds Hill, the SC RSA building s demolition, and the return of a beloved cat missing for two years, all made the headlines in December, as Doug Sail discovered in the final instalment of our series looking back at the year that was. The controversial Timaru retail development proposal at Showgrounds Hill was granted resource consent on December 11, less than a day after a ruling that the application was not headed for public consultation. Permission for Auckland-based developer Redwood Group (RG) to turn the 12-hectare site site into a 34,000 square-metre retail centre was approved by independent commissioner Allan Cubitt.
Brislen said there had definitely been a rise in online shopping. ”I don’t have those [online spending] figures but I’d say there are more people doing online shopping in smaller centres as they can get products that might not be available locally.” South Canterbury Chamber of Commerce chief executive Wendy Smith said spending habits had changed since Covid-19. “We know that people have been purchasing bigger items, Smith said. “The retailers we have spoken to have been confident about pre-Christmas sales and the way things have gone.
JOHN BISSET/Stuff
Shoppers make their way along Stafford St on Boxing Day.
JOHN BISSET/Stuff
Emilie Russell, left, Mya Lundie, Ella Arnold, Gillian Davis, Alex Howden and Stella Vaivai enjoy hunting for bargains in Timaru on Black Friday (November 27).
Timaru retailers are confident of a busy festive shopping season, despite figures which show a dip in spending in the region during the usually busy Black Friday weekend, traditionally a major kickstart in the lead up to Christmas. Paymark, which accounts for the processing of the majority of New Zealand s Eftpos payments, has released its figures for the November 27-30 period, which includes Black Friday and Cyber Monday sales. The figures show electronic retail spending in South Canterbury was down about 3 per cent from the same period last year. Paymark was unable to release the total amount spent in the region during that time.