Shoppers splashed out on alcohol for New Year's, data shows

Wednesday, 5 January 2022

New Zealanders stocked up for a party on New Year’s Eve, new spending statistics show.

Worldline, formerly Paymark, has released data for the last days of 2021 and beginning of 2022.

It covers about 70 per cent of New Zealand’s in-store electronic transactions.

The data showed that core retail merchants, excluding hospitality outlets, processed $696 million in transactions in the week to January 4.

That was 7 per cent more than the same seven days a year earlier and 13 per cent higher than the pre-Covid times of the start of 2020.

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Spending on December 31, 2021, was $140m on the one day alone, up 13 per cent on 2020.

New Year’s Eve spending in 2021 included $16m through liquor retailers, not including supermarkets, up 13 per cent on 2020.

Overall, spending at liquor merchants on New Year’s Eve 2021 was higher than 2020 across all regions, except Gisborne and West Coast.

All regions recorded more spending this year than 2020/2021 and 2019/2020 except Gisborne, which was down 3 per cent compared to pre-Covid, probably due in part to the absence of the Rhythm and Vines music festival, which was cancelled this year.

Retail NZ spokeswoman Aimie Hines said she hoped spending would remain elevated through this year, because retailers had suffered due to the lockdowns of 2021.

She hoped it would broaden beyond one-off spending on big ticket items. The increase in liquor spending suggested that was happening, she said.

“There are encouraging signs.”

The data showed there was almost 7 per cent more spent in the pre-Christmas week in 2021 than in 2020 but Christmas Eve was slightly quieter.