Christmas shopping - and last-minute requests to the big man in red - hit a snag at one of Auckland’s biggest malls today after a fire alarm went off. 

Shoppers, staff and Santa were evacuated from the St Luke’s Mall incident just after noon. 

However, the warning proved to be a false alarm with no signs of smoke or fire found, Fire and Emergency Northern communications shift manager Ryan Geen said. 

Hundreds of affected shoppers have since been let back inside. 

The short-lived setback came as thousands swarmed city supermarkets for last-minute fresh food shopping runs 36 hours out from Christmas Day - and stock is already running low for some festive faves. 

A hundred people were waiting to get into Pak’n Save Wairau Rd when it opened at 7am, and around 40 could also be seen outside Farro Fresh Food in Grey Lynn when doors opened at 8am. 

Tina Huang, and daughters lily, 7 & Lia, 5, get up close to Santa as the fire evacuation goes on outside Westfield St Lukes. Photo / Jason Oxenham 

Once inside people were calm, but focused, a shopper at the upmarket grocery store in suburban Auckland said. 

“People seemed very intent on getting the goods they needed and filling trollies to the brim. There was no tension, but it was early in the day. Emotions may start rising tomorrow.” 

A worker at Countdown Mt Eden said legs of lamb were “flying out left, right and centre”, and stocks for popular cut for roasting were - along with ham - running low at some stores. 

They still had both in stock late this morning, the worker said. 

Shoppers were also hitting the produce sections hard, especially for barbecue meats like prawns and sausages, veges for salads, sweet corn and cherries. 

“Everything fresh is just getting smashed - produce, seafood, deli, meat.” 

They were open till 11pm tonight and again from 6am to 11pm tomorrow, he said. 

Cherries, strawberries, raspberries, pavlovas, hams, sweetcorn, wine and beer were landing in trollies at New World Papatoetoe this morning, owner Max McDermid said. 

“For the butchery, produce, bakery departments, this is a big time of year.” 

Trollies were full but with December 25 coming immediately after the weekend he wasn’t expecting the same mad dash on Christmas Eve. They’ve also extended their hours and will close at 10pm today and tomorrow, following a 7am opening. 

“Instead of it being super, super crazy the day before it’s spread between the two days.” 

Over on Auckland’s North Shore, 100 shoppers were outside Pak’n Save Wairau Rd when the store opened at 7am. 

He expected heavy demand to continue through to closing at 11pm today, and 10pm tomorrow, store manager Wayne Bevin said. 

“Today and tomorrow are gonna be nuts. But we’re prepared. We survived the [January 27] floods, so Christmas is easy.” 

Cherries, beer, champagne and whole cuts of meat from the butchery seemed to be on most shoppers’ lists. 

“And sweetcorn, that’s just come in at a good price. Cream, custard and ham-on-the-bone is also very popular.” 

Asked when a good time to do the Christmas food shop was, Bevin joked “yesterday”, and plenty of shoppers obviously agreed, with 10,000 transactions through the tills yesterday. 

That’s about 30 per cent up on a normal day. 

Transactions had already been tracking 20 per cent ahead of a normal week as people stocked up ahead of the festive season, Bevin said. 

But there’d always be a need to leave shopping for the freshest food till last, he said. 

“Even if you wanted to be organised, you do have to do that last shop.” 

- NZ Herald