The day after Christmas Day is called Boxing Day. It is not clear where this name came from but maybe it came from people putting left-over food into boxes to give to the poor. Nowadays, it is the day when shops have sales and offer good bargains.
This year, people spent more than last year and the year before. Paymark processes three-quarters of all electronic sales. These are sales using a credit card or cash card. Paymark said sales were up by 13.4 per cent – or $14.2 million – compared with Boxing Day last year. People spent $120m, compared with $106m on the same day last year. They bought more than two million items. The population of NZ is only 4.4 million.
The most popular items were electronic goods, jewellery and clothing.
Vocabulary
left-over – extra food, food not eaten on Christmas day
cash card – In NZ this is called EFTPOS – Electronic Funds Transfer at Point Of Sale; point of sale is the place you buy something e.g. at the shop; the money (funds) is taken (transfer) directly out of your bank account. It is not a credit card
items – different things