An early start is nothing new for friends Cole Lynch, Lachlan Ritchie and Jake Davidson, but they are usually heading to the beach for a surf.
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Instead the teenagers left their homes in Shellharbour at 6am for a shopping spree in Sydney yesterday.
"We're shopping for summer gear," said Cole, after emerging from General Pants.
"It was pretty hectic in there."
The friends are part of a growing trend of young men hunting in packs for fashion items and gadgets in the Boxing Day sales frenzy, according to retailers.
"Last year we saw a lot of men in the front of the queue to get in-store and this year they're out in force," Australian National Retailers Association chief executive Margy Osmond said.
"We're seeing groups of guys coming in and they're buying fashion and they're buying gadgets.
"So clearly the boys are having a nice day out together to do some shopping, so I'm sure this is a trend we're going to see more of."
Women were targeting fashion and homewares such as sheets and towels.
Ms Osmond said Boxing Day was the "ultimate adrenaline shop" with even deeper price cuts than those made in the lead-up to Christmas.
Retailers were expecting a $1.8 billion spend for the day, up about 2.5 per cent on last year.
Ms Osmond said that was not the level retailers would like, but at least it was not going backwards.
"So let's hope that everybody gets out there and parts with a few pennies over the next few days," she said.
She said that because Victoria had unrestricted trading, its predicted Boxing Day spend would be $588 million ahead of $511 million in NSW.
She urged the NSW government to give retailers a Christmas present of unrestricted shopping hours next year.