Astonishing footage has emerged of the traffic chaos caused by Black Friday sales over the weekend at major Australian shopping centres.
The Australian Retailer’s Association believes 10 million Australians flooded stores from Friday hoping to collect some pre-Christmas bargains, spending at least $6.36 billion.
And the sales rushed sparked mayhem at Westfield Parramatta and at DFO in Homebush, in Sydney west.
Two Sydneysider’s plan to make a Black Friday sale in Westfield Parramatta descended into an afternoon of hell.
It took the pair almost 90 minutes to leave the Westfield carpark – with other claiming they took two hours to get out.
This woman’s first experience of the Black Friday sales in Sydney wasn’t a good one
‘The worst part is exiting the carpark,’ the woman explained She and her unimpressed driving companion spent more than an hour stationary in the car park and occupied their time watching YouTube videos.
At one stage, the woman went back into Westfield to go to the bathroom.
‘Guess what, the car is still here,’ she explains minutes later.
‘Hasn’t moved an inch!’
Fellow motorists caught up in the chaos can heard expressing their annoyance as the non-stop blaring of horns rings out across the carpark.
It wasn’t any better hours after the shops closed.
‘We’ve been waiting an hour and a half to get out of Westfield,’ another frustrated shopper captioned her video of the Parramatta Westfields ‘parking station’.
It took this man almost 90 minutes to get out of the Westfield Parramatta car park
The Westfield Parramatta car park was still a mess after the shops closed
The scenes were just as wild at DFO Homebush, where eager shoppers spent hours lining up just to get inside.
The queue in the car park of packed with shoppers extended for hundreds of metres.
Men were just as excited for the sales as the ladies and flocked to the Nike outlet in in the hunt for new footwear and clothing.
It wasn’t any better outside with another shopper showing traffic banked up for kilometres.
Eager shoppers queued for hours just to get into DFO Homebush
The traffic getting into DFO Homebush was banked up for kilometres on Friday
The scenes of the Black Friday sales astonished viewers.
‘I used to work at DFO, the sales go on all week and they’re the same sales you don’t need to wait in a line for 4 hours,’ one woman commented.
Another added: ‘Sales with old stock that nobody wants. These people don’t value their time.’
Others pondered why shoppers would go through the nightmare when the same bargains are online.
‘Stay at home,’ one viewer wrote.
Aussie hoppers are tipped to spend $6.36billion across the four-day Black Friday/Cyber Monday weekend, according to the Australian Retail Association.
‘As the country continues to be gripped by a cost-of-living crisis, the importance of Black Friday and Cyber Monday will be more significant than ever before,’ Paul Zahra said
‘Despite a lukewarm spending projection for the pre-Christmas period, Black Friday this year is set to be record-breaking, as consumers seek out bargains amid intense financial pressure.
‘We expect by the end of November more than half of the gift shopping in Australia would have been completed.’
The chaos will continue in the coming weeks as Christmas looms, followed by the Boxing Day sales.
The Nike outlet was packed with savvy bargains hunting for a pre-Christmas bargain
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