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.