The suffering retail industry is embracing the easing of restrictions with a festive type spirit, as many leave their doors open until midnight.Shopping precincts have been frantically getting ready after Premier Daniel Andrews surprisingly gave them an early start on Friday.The updated Victorian roadmap will now allow ‘non-essential’ retail to reopen from 6pm.Myer plans to extend their trading hours until midnight in a hope to snap up buyers keen to get their Spring Racing Carnival frocks and glam on.Chief customer officer Geoff Ikin said they had sold over 110,000 dresses in the past few weeks online and expected a surge come Friday as our lack lustre social calendars start to fill up.“It is great to have retail therapy back in Metro Melbourne and we can’t wait to open our doors with socially distanced arms this Friday,” Ikin told the Herald Sun.retail trading hours melbourne“We expect to see more summer dresses and footwear flying out the door. Suiting and accessories are also in high demand with the Spring Racing Carnival kicking off this weekend.”Shopping centres including Westfield and Chadstone are expecting high demand from pent up visitors eager to return to a shop that isn’t virtual.Chadstone regional general manager Michael Whitehead said the shopping precinct plans to celebrate the long-awaited reopening with a three-piece jazz band and Warm Welcome Back installation as a form of retail therapy when their doors open the minute the clock strikes 6pm.“We expect to see the centre return to normal occupancy quite quickly and sales revert to pre-pandemic trends,” Whitehead said. “We’ve seen a 20 per cent increase in spend per visit throughout 2021 compared to 2019 which shows that customers are eager to shop particularly as we prepare for Black Friday Week and Christmas.”Even the humble Bunnings sausage sizzle is making an eagerly awaited return, but not until Saturday. Until then Ho ho ho and shop.
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