The spring sales kicked off yesterday at Trimingham Brothers with hordes of shoppers flocking to get discounted items on the first day of the sale.

Men's shirts from $5 a pop and women's sweaters from $10 saw sales floors packed with bargain hunters.

“It looks like it has been a very busy day,” said Lawrence Trimingham, president of the department store at the end of yesterday. “It is too early to tell how we have done, but we have certainly had a lot of people in.”

He said that he believed that a lot of people had gone to the store to have a look at the renovations on the first and third floors.

The clearance sale is an annual event that is used to clear stock from spring to summer. Cooper's and Smith's department stores also began spring sales yesterday.