Post-Christmas sales draw shoppers again
Glendale — For late December, Monday was balmy. The skies were blue. And with many people getting an extra day off from work, it was a good day to get out.
What’s a person to do, but shop?
The day after Christmas is traditionally big for retailers — returns and bargains drive foot traffic.
Nationally, retailers were touting big sales. Two local retailers — Boston Store and Kohl’s Corp. — tried enticing customers with in-store and online deals. Example: Boston Store offered $50 off on Monday only with an online purchase of $100 or more.
Retailing consultant Shopper-Track said Monday was expected to be the second-busiest shopping day this year, outpaced only by Black Friday — the day after Thanksgiving.
At the Bayshore Town Center, surface parking lots in the afternoon were jammed. Shoppers inched into and out of parking ramps — spelled for a time from winds that gusted to more than 40 miles per hour, according to the National Weather Service.
Anwuri Okoro, 21, was lucky. She found a metered spot near the main entrance of the mall. She fumbled with her credit card in the meter, but was looking forward to joining the bustle around her.
Okoro, a recent graduate from Marquette University, was shopping for dress shoes.
The sales she described as “crazy” brought her out. Another reason was a sense that she hadn’t had enough time to shop this year.
Because Christmas Eve and Christmas fell on a weekend, “I almost missed it,” she said of the usual run-up of shopping days.
Usually “Super Saturday” — retailing parlance for the final Saturday before Christmas — is one of the busiest days of the year. This year, it did not even crack the top 10, according to Shopper-Track, because the Saturday fell on Christmas Eve.
The Chicago-based company is owned by Tyco-Retail Solutions, which is a unit of Glendale-based Johnson Controls. It installs electronic equipment in stores to monitor foot traffic, giving retailers greater insight into consumers’ shopping habits.
USA TODAY reported customers should know that return policies and procedures vary widely and can be confusing.
The newspaper said that Kmart is extending its period for accepting returns. It will let shoppers make returns until Jan. 31 for items purchased between Nov. 1 and Dec. 24. But that applies only to items that typically have a 30-day return window.
USA TODAY also reports that bringing in an unused gift may not be enough to get a refund at some stores. Additional proof is likely. You may need identification, a receipt or packing slip, and all packaging and parts of the product. Sometimes tags must be attached, too.
At Bayshore, Karen Kainz, 64, had no returns and was shopping for bargains.
Money has been tight and she took advantage of the Salvation Army’s Christmas dinner downtown on Sunday.
Kainz took the bus from her apartment on the lower east side to Glendale to shop and watch people. She had her eye on a new coat, preferably wool, or sturdy hiking shoe, to which she could apply a $19 Kohl’s coupon she had earned from past purchases.
The gusting wind that sent plastic soda cups teetering across the sidewalk didn’t bother her. “I’m glad the snow’s gone. It’s refreshing,” she said.
As a budget shopper, Kainz thinks that the discounts are not yet deep enough.
Trish Jones lives in Walworth County. She works in downtown Chicago during the week and knew exactly what she was going to buy — a silk scarf for a friend at Banana Republic.
Jones said she had done a lot of shopping in Chicago before Monday. It seemed at Bayshore as if more people were buying items than making returns, she said. “The lines are longer here today, even longer than Chicago,” she said.