Sales fever continued yesterday as retailers reported huge numbers of shoppers through their doors. Some stores are confident that this will be their best winter sales.
In Dublin, motorists queued for car-parks that had been full since early morning.
Cork traders are expecting to see people spending up to £20 million in the city over the next three weeks and in Belfast traders said sales were up 30 per cent on last year. AA Roadwatch reported long delays in Limerick, Galway and Waterford yesterday evening as shoppers made their way home.
The manager of the Jervis Street Centre in Dublin, Mr Pat Hughes, said 80,000 people visited the centre yesterday, and its car park was full by 9.30 a.m.
Arnotts' advertising and promotion manager, Mr Eddie Shanahan, said the store had "record figures" for its first sales day. He said it took almost 10 minutes to get the first queue through the main door when the store opened. "It has been seriously busy today."
Brown Thomas's general manager, Mr Ronan Faherty, said the store had its "busiest day ever" on the first day of its sale on Saturday and turnover was up 28 per cent on last year. In Cork, the city's business association spokesman, Mr James O'Sullivan, said sales started quite busily on Saturday and began in earnest yesterday when many of the smaller shops reopened.
While it is difficult to predict the exact spend, the Cork Business Association, with 225 members in the city centre, estimates it could reach £20 million. This compares to a three-month pre-Christmas spend of £50 million, said Mr O'Sullivan.
While major multiples such as Roches Stores and Dunnes Stores haven't yet started their sales, smaller shops, in particular gents' and ladies' clothes shops, as well as electrical retailers, were doing particularly good business, he said.
In Galway, shoppers were undeterred by a number of early afternoon downpours. While shop owners agreed it was too early to compare sales mania to other years, they agreed that the first few days were very encouraging since the shops reopened on Saturday.
"We had a great day on Saturday, when the place was chock-a-block," said the manager of the Moons department store, Ms Breda Glynn. "There has been huge demand for ladies fashions, menswear, and household goods.
The manager of electrical store, Powerworld, Mr Tom Coyle, a discount electrical store on the Tuam Road, described the store's sale as a "phenomenal success" since it began on Saturday.
In Belfast, traders were generally pleased with the sales turnout yesterday, with some saying turnover was up 30 per cent on last year. By lunchtime yesterday most city-centre shops were packed and a long queue had formed outside the Next store on Royal Avenue. Bargain hunters who brought their cars into town also found queues at most city-centre car-parks.
The chief executive of the Belfast Chamber of Trade, Mr Frank Caddy, said all the reports he had heard so far were positive, which was a welcome development after a somewhat disappointing Christmas.
Mr Caddy said he believed shoppers had become "more sophisticated" and were saving money to spend on larger, more expensive items in the January sales rather than before Christmas.