Supermarkets chocka on Xmas Eve - and asparagus running dry

Shoppers have been flocking to supermarkets to stock up their fridges before Christmas - but they might be out of luck trying to get asparagus for the big day.

One Auckland resident went to her local supermarket to stock up on ingredients for a Christmas salad.

"I went to Farro in Grey Lynn yesterday and it was absolutely jam-packed and I was walking around for ages trying to find the asparagus.

"So I asked one of the produce guys and he said that there'd been a huge shortage and that they didn't have any in store over Christmas," she said.

The shopper said it was a "tragedy" that she couldn't find any before tomorrow.

"I'm going to have to make a salad without asparagus - it's a tragedy but I'm sure I'll live."

She then went to Countdown and couldn't find any.

Some shoppers have been rushing around to get their hands on a leg of ham or fresh fruit before they run out; others are collecting the ingredients they forgot from previous shops.

Pablo Kraus sneaked down to Victoria St New World on his scooter to grab some odds and ends he forgot in yesterday's shop.

"Just picking up a few things that we missed out on yesterday - paper towels, oven bag for chicken," he said.

The manager of New World's customer experience, Emily Blumenthal , said New Zealanders learn from experience when to go shopping and when not to at this time of year.

"It's interesting to note that the average age of shoppers starts to fall as we get close to the wire – older customers, with more experience, seem to be better organised about their shopping.

"Forty three per cent of our customers do their largest shop in the week before Christmas versus 31 per cent whose largest shop is the week prior.

"Our customers stock up late in the day on Cadbury's Favourites, cream, strawberries, bananas, Nestle reduced cream, onion soup, milk and a bit of fizzy as a special treat on the biggest day of the year," Blumenthal said.

It might be busy in our nation's supermarkets but the same can't be said about our shopping malls.

This morning Westfield St Lukes in Auckland's west was relatively quiet, with most getting their shopping done early, it seems.

Paul Kitchenman took his partner, Kate Lal, in to get her nails done and tried to sneak away to get her a gift.

"I thought I would try and sneak off and get some presents for her and of course she walks straight into the shop while I was doing it," he said.

Kitchenman thought they timed their visit to the mall perfectly.

"Once we get out of here I reckon it's going to get busier and busier and scarier, so we planned it right," he said.

Paymark spokesman Paul Brislen said the company almost reached $300 million spending on Friday from 6,322,284 transactions.

Last year the data from the electronic payments company showed Kiwis spent almost $6 billion in card transactions.

In the annual Christmas retail poll by AMP Capital Shopping Centres 1200 people from all over the nation answered questions about their shopping plans and gifts they did and didn't like.

Forty per cent of respondents said self-help books would be the worst gift they could receive this year.

One-third of people said the ideal gift for them would be money or gift vouchers so they could go shopping for themselves.

The survey also found most Kiwis keep what we're given - only 28 per cent of people said they had regifted presents they received at Christmas.