Departments stores are tipped to experience one of their worst holiday shopping periods since the global financial crisis.

Although Victorians spent $786 million yesterday, crowds were down.

And a survey, commissioned and today released by the Australian Retailers Association, predicts just 0.4 per cent growth for the post-Christmas sales period.

Barry Urquhart from Marketing Focus says pre-Christmas sales, combined with poor consumer confidence, is taking its toll.

“In Australia we have a compounding problem; we’ve got discretionary purchases down across the board, static incomes,” he said.

“We are the second-most indebted society in the world after Switzerland. Housing pricing are down, power and utility prices are up.

“So consumer confidence is not all that great, it’s very fractured at the moment.”

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