The record for the most money spent in Adelaide CBD on a single day was broken twice during the 2024 festive season, new Adelaide Economic Development Agency data shows.
Rundle Mall’s Black Friday shopping event, the biggest sales event of the year, helped inject $23.5 million into the City economy on Friday, 29 November 2024.
That record was broken for a second time on Friday, 20 December – Rundle Mall’s second day of midnight shopping in the lead-up to Christmas – when $24.8 million was spent in Adelaide.
It marked a 10% increase on the previous record, which was set in December 2023 at $22.6 million.
“Last year’s festive season set a new benchmark for economic activity in the City and demonstrated how important a strong November and December is for city businesses,” said Andrew White, Adelaide Economic Development Agency Executive Manager, Rundle Mall.
“We actively promoted Rundle Mall as Adelaide’s premier shopping destination and the only place to shop until midnight on Black Friday.
“While this helped drive spending on the most important day of the year for retail, the data shows Black Friday also had a halo effect for other city businesses, with the dining sector also seeing a significant uplift in spending.”
Overall, citywide spending on Black Friday was 52% higher than the 12-month Friday average last year.
Dining spend across the City’s hospitality businesses was 10% higher than the 2024 average, with many of the Mall’s customers opting to have lunch or dinner in the city before, during, or after shopping.
Data from the Adelaide Economic Development Agency showed that nearly 250,000 people visited Rundle Mall on Black Friday last year, which is 41% more than the 12-month Friday average.
“The two record-setting days of spending coincided with two days of midnight shopping in Rundle Mall which shows there’s a strong appetite to shop longer and later in the city,” White said.
“People came to the city where they shopped, they ate, and soaked up everything Adelaide has to offer and, in doing so, spent millions of dollars in retail and hospitality businesses.”
The City saw a further two records broken in December, with Christmas shopping driving record-high spending and foot traffic.
Citywide spending in December 2024 reached $421 million, up 12% in comparison to December 2023, making it the highest total spend in one month on record. Approximately 45% of all money spent in the city was in retail stores.
Rundle Mall visitation numbers between Friday, 20 December and Sunday, 22 December were the highest on record, with 600,000 last-minute shoppers flocking to the Mall.
Foot traffic in Rundle Mall during its three days of midnight shopping (Thursday 19, Friday 20 and Monday 23 December 2024) was 17% higher than midnight trading days in 2023.
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