Auckland shoppers showed less hesitancy in returning to the malls than had been predicted as life in the city took another step closer to normality with the opening of shops. “It has been better than we had expected during the course of the day,” said Greg Harford​, chief executive of Retail NZ, the business association for shop-owners. “When the rest of the country moved from alert level 3 to alert level 2, it took a couple of days for things to warm up,” Harford said. The quicker return for Aucklanders could be a result of their having suffered such a prolonged lockdown, he said. Ricky Wilson/Stuff Dozens wait in line outside Sylvia Park in Auckland ahead of the alert level shift, to stage 2 of alert level 3.

Source: Stuff November 10, 2021 05:31 UTC