Kimmi Guzman did not want to work the Sunday after Christmas. The sales associate at the Victoria’s Secret in Tysons Corner Center had watched sales soar until the store’s supply of bras and sweatpants were “hemorrhaging,” the crowds so stressful that the 21-year-old’s face was breaking out for the first time since high school. And she knew Sunday would be worse.
“A lot of men are coming in saying, ‘I’ll just grab a medium,’ or ‘She looks like a small to me,’ ” said Guzman, shaking her head. Returns were inevitable.
Holiday sales are up 3.3 percent over last year, the National Retail Federation estimated, after a November shopping boom triggered the trade group to increase its projection from 2.3 percent. Aside from male cluelessness, the day after Christmas was set to be a perfect storm of shopping and gift returns — and all the chaos that implies, especially as the notorious day fell on a weekend.
Gift card sales increased for the first time in three years, hitting $91 billion, financial research service TowerGroup estimated. “Merchants will start seeing the impact of gift cards in their retail sales right after Christmas, starting on Dec. 26,” said Brian Riley, senior research director for bank cards.
The National Retail Federation estimated that the average American spent $145.61 on gift cards for the holidays this year, up from $139.91 in 2009.
| Top 20 gift cards of 2010 |
| 1. Walmart |
| 2. Amazon.com |
| 3. Target |
| 4. Visa |
| 5. Home Depot |
| 6. Lowe’s |
| 7. Costco |
| 8. Best Buy |
| 9. Starbucks |
| 10. Walgreens |
| 11. CVS |
| 12. American Express |
| 13. Bed Bath & Beyond |
| 14. McDonald’s |
| 15. MasterCard |
| 16. Whole Foods |
| 17. Shell |
| 18. Exxon Mobil |
| 19. BP |
| 20. Southwest Airlines |
| Source: Giftcardrescue.com’s survey of 6,000 users from January through October of the gift cards they most wanted to receive. |
| Note: Giftcardrescue.com does not allow buy-back of some typical hot sellers, such as Apple’s iTune gift cards, which may skew the list away from these popular presents. |
The most desired gift cards? Walmart, Amazon.com and Target.
At the Columbia Heights Target, Sunday hours were extended — 7 a.m. to 11 p.m. — and staffing was increased 30 percent to accommodate an influx of shoppers, said Richelle Adams, an assistant manager.
“We anticipate a lot of returns, a lot of exchanges, and so we’re putting more people at the front-end to accommodate people coming in, and at the gift exchange counter,” she said.
Walmart spokeswoman Ashley Hardie declined to divulge the giant retailer’s plans to smooth Sunday shopping: “Once we talk about those, they become less secure,” Hardie said. “But we anticipate our stores will be busy with people returning things that were not necessarily their first choice.”
Over at Tysons, stores were mobbed as shoppers rushed to buy last-minute gifts. Nearly 40 percent of Americans still had presents to buy the day before Christmas Eve, according to a Rasmussen poll.
Guzman, lording over a table of girls’ underwear in Victoria’s Secret, lamented that no matter how much the store increased staffing, “I’m still working ridiculous shifts.”
The day after Christmas is sometimes the busiest shopping day of the year for Tysons, said mall spokeswoman Allison Fischer. Because sales are up so much over 2009 — retailers reported sales increases ranging from 3 percent to 85 percent — Tysons brought in 82 parking lot attendants, increased its valet parking lots from two to five, and upped its security staff.
All those measures will stay in place through the week after Christmas, Fischer said.
Miss Pixie’s, a vintage furniture and gift store off the District’s U Street corridor, also had been swamped with holiday shoppers, and sales were up 40 percent over last year. “We put all our Christmas stuff out before Thanksgiving, and it sold out by the first week of December,” owner Pixie Windsor said. “Merchandise didn’t move like that last year; people were serious this year.”
But even after pulling 80-hour weeks leading up to Christmas, jetting to auctions and hawking silver flatware and vintage ornaments, Windsor said Sunday would be a breeze for a deliciously simple reason:
All sales are final.
“It’s going to be very relaxing,” Windsor smiled.
