Thousands of shoppers ventured to Bayfair Shopping Centre on the weekend despite the GST increase, with a 10 per cent increase in people through the door.

This was preceded by some 24,000 people entering the mall on Thursday on the eve of GST rising to 15 per cent, says centre manager Andrew Wadsworth.

Thursday was also when Bayfair opened its latest development, which includes new electronics store JB Hi-Fi, bargain shop 1, 2, 3 Mart and Chii Health and Beauty.

Andrew says the 24,000 people was up 38 per cent from the same day in 2009.
He attributes the increase to a combination of GST going up along with the new stores and Farmers having a cardholder day.

'Generally we don't see that sort of foot traffic except for Christmas. It's pretty high figures,” says Andrew.

He says despite some shops closing down they haven't seen any major declines, with business remaining steady in regards to what shoppers are spending.

Andrew says Bayfair usually has an excess of $20 million for the month of December.

He says after recession hit there was a five per cent decrease in spending in December 2008, with spending coming up three per cent last Christmas.

He is hoping that this year spending will increase back to normal levels.

'We're expecting a decent growth, we're pretty excited about this Christmas.”