Dean Street looked more like Melbourne’s Bourke Street yesterday as Border residents and visitors emerged en masse for the Boxing Day sales.

Albury’s Myer store had its busiest Boxing Day, according to store manager Alvar Poulton.

He said early estimates were that the number of customers in the store throughout the day was also up on recent years.

“There were more people out early than we had seen in the past,” Mr Poulton said.

“And that’s probably because they wanted to see all the bargains.”

Mr Poulton said there were about 50 to 60 customers waiting as the doors opened, with numbers rising through the day.

“It’s been extremely busy,” he said.

“It’s bumper to bumper with the amount of people in the store.”

Mr Poulton credited the increase to improved customer service and product range, plus a spike in gift card sales.

“They want to use their gift cards as soon as they can and what better day than Boxing Day when you can get the best value for money,” he said.

Mr Poulton said the most popular items had been homewares, such as towels, bed linen and cookware, and women’s shoes and apparel.

Ashleigh Righetti, of Albury, who was one of the first through the doors at Myer, said the best markdowns were in the kitchenware section.

“There was some really good stuff available,” she said.

But overall, Ms Righetti said the sale hadn’t been as good as previous years and she was disappointed with the markdowns on handbags and shoes.

Leaving with three full shopping bags after one hour, she said she usually made it to the sale every year but never that early.

Raquel Wood, of Lavington, said she made it early every year to beat the crowds, this year going with a friend to purchase homewares and shirts for her son.

“We did quite well actually,” she said.

“We reckoned we saved about $300 between us.”

David Lengmead, of Wodonga, came to replace a set of pots he’d bought seven years ago, the last time he’d braved the Boxing Day sales.

“It was as good as I expected,” he said.