Christmas is usually a time for winding down but at the Nowra Fresh Fish and Meat Market, staff are gearing up for their biggest catch of the year.
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Filleters and fish handlers have been turning up to work at 2am all week and as of tomorrow they'll be running the shop 24-hours straight to cater for an unstoppable Christmas crowd.
Co-owner Brad Banks is expecting more than 5500 customers in the three days leading up to Christmas Eve, though staff are already run off their feet.
''During Easter we had three cash registers running and I worked out we were serving one customer every 30 seconds,'' he said.
''We've bought faster registers since then and I reckon in the next few days we'll get that figure to one every 23 seconds.
''It's just crazy at this time.''
Prawns have been one of the biggest hits and oysters are walking out the door, with sales expected to rise from an average of 1500 dozen a week to 6000 dozen for the seven days ending Christmas Eve.
Considering oysters have a shelf life of seven days, Mr Banks said most people were ''playing it smart'' and holding off on buying until this afternoon or tomorrow.
But the majority have placed their orders early to ensure they get in before stock runs out.
''We've got people travelling in from absolutely everywhere,'' he said. ''One lady is leaving from Goulburn to get here at 5am, she's got an order of about $280. We got off the phone from another lady in Sydney this morning, she's ordered $800 worth of seafood that we'll get delivered to the Sydney fish markets for her on Christmas Eve. ''It's going to be a busy day for us.''
The Nowra Fresh Fish Market is one of the most highly renowned fish suppliers on the South Coast.
Started five years ago, Mr Banks said it was supposed to be a small shop for himself and a mate (business partner Daniel Fawall) to sell their catch.
The store has since grown from six staff to 43, moved to a larger shopfront on the Princes Highway and expanded to offer meats ranging from goat, buffalo, emu and kangaroo to quail, venison, rabbit and spatchcock. Mr Banks said the venture had grown bigger than they'd ever expected.
''We were just two mad amateur fishermen who thought we could make a bit of money selling our catch but still have time to fish on the side,'' he said. ''That's been blown out of the water. Now we've got butchers and filleters starting from 2am to 4am every day and they can have six full bodies out there that they cut up before we open. There's no time for us to go fishing but that doesn't matter. We love it.''
