New Zealand’s premier retail destination is trading as usual after a very challenging 36 hours.

Power was out for most parts of Newmarket from early Sunday morning until late Sunday afternoon. The northern end of Broadway, and the hospitality area on Davis Crescent, was largely unaffected. The high foot-traffic areas on the southern end of Broadway, Westfield Newmarket as well as Nuffield and Teed Streets were without power until the end of the business day. Some stores remained open, but reported very poor sales.

“The outage has been a huge disappointment for our retail and hospitality businesses. We’re coming off the back of a fairly average winter, sales-wise, and have been expecting a lift in Spring-time weekend trading. Saturdays and Sundays are peak days for many of our businesses, and coupled with the school holidays, many were expecting a very strong day of sales” says Newmarket Business Association CEO Mark Knoff-Thomas, “A few stores had ongoing issues with online POS systems this morning, but by all accounts all are up and running again.”

The added stress for many workers in Newmarket is the prospect of returning to a cold, dark powerless house tonight after work.