Eager shoppers crowd into stores hunting for Boxing Day bargains in biggest turnout in years A sea of shoppers floods into David Jones at Queens Plaza looking for Boxing Day bargains. BARGAIN-hunters have turned out in droves to put Queensland on track to record the biggest Boxing Day sales in half a decade. Hundreds of thousands of people crammed shopping centres and other outlets across the state yesterday in search of discounts, with retailers and industry experts reporting the best turnout in years. "I've got to say this is one of the better Boxing Day sales we've seen," Australian Retailers Association executive director Russell Zimmerman said. I think there's a number of reasons for it: Interest rates are very low so there's probably more spending money out there; we've got a consumer who is relatively confident at the moment; and we've had a change in government. Many shops had customers queuing out of the door for much of the day. Ladies clothing, lingerie and footwear, menswear and electrical goods proved the most popular purchases. Mr Zimmerman said the real test would be how the post-Christmas sales continued over the next 20 days but he believed the predicted $3.169 billion spend across Queensland would be easily achieved. David Jones had crowds queuing overnight to be the first in to the stores, even though it had launched its sales online at 6pm on Christmas Eve. "We've had a fantastic start," the chain's Queensland regional manager Rowena Derksen said. The department store was also thrilled with the response to its web store. However, the news wasn't so good for opposition Myer. Its website crashed at the worst possible time. The site went down shortly after the online sales launched at 9am on Christmas Day and remained out of action for most of yesterday. Despite the company investing thousands of dollars into the website ahead of the sales to ensure it would be able to cope with the demand, it failed. It's absolute volume (that caused it to crash). We've never experienced anything like that before," Myer Queensland general manager Jamie Mackay said. It's not ideal but given the traffic in stores today it probably hasn't affected the overall picture. "Over the next couple of days we'd make that up anyway," he said. Obviously we've probably lost some customers but I think over the next couple of days you'll find that most of those customers will log back on and purchase. Myer's in-store sales were much better, with Mr Mackay declaring it the best Boxing Day in five years with upwards of 300,000 customers entering the stores across Queensland. The traffic has been tremendous. The crowds are definitely better than expected," he said. Westfield centres throughout Brisbane also drew record numbers, with an estimated 155,000 packing Carindale and Chermside alone. "People were flocking in and queuing from the early hours (and) we've had queues out through retailers' doors well beyond lunch time," Westfield Chermside centre manager David Doyle said. As well as high crowd figures, Mr Doyle said initial feedback indicated spend was up. "From what I've heard from retailers, the average spend is actually higher (so) I think we'll see some really positive growth," he said. Shopping sisters Amber and Madison Ellis said the crowds were "ridiculous." "It's just crazy," said Amber, 19. People just get a bit vicious, with barging and shoulder charges, but it's not too bad. Robina Town Centre and Pacific Fair on the Gold Coast were also packed with security forced to control the crowds and limit the number of people entering each store.