Holiday over, but sales still strong in Merced

Holiday gift-giving may be over for most Merced County families, but the shopping continued Friday, the day after Christmas, which is nationally considered the second-biggest shopping day of the year.

Black Friday – the day after Thanksgiving – is still the reigning champ when it comes to retail sales, but the day after Christmas has a number of other factors going for it. Many shoppers come ready to spend gift cards, exchange unwanted presents or take advantage of discounts.

Michelle Roe, 39, of Merced, who was shopping at Target in Merced on Friday, said she was just “killing time” as she left the store pushing a cart full of gift wrap and other items purchased at 50 percent off.

Roe said she typically goes out looking for deals after Christmas. Since the holiday landed on a Thursday, she had Friday off, leaving time to shop. “We’re headed to Modesto to do our real shopping after we finish up some stuff in Merced,” she said.

Many area stores continued their sales prices from the discounts that began after Thanksgiving. Others offered cut-rate pricing on holiday decorations and wrapping paper, now that Christmas is past.

Looking for a new computer monitor at Best Buy in Merced was Ed Feehan of Merced. The 79-year-old said he got a discount on his monitor, but he wasn’t out and about because of the sales. His wife, Brenda, was another story. “She went shopping for specials and made some killings,” he said. “She got a bunch of stuff at more than one store.”

Nationally, holiday shopping is expected to be up by 4.1 percent from last year, according to the National Retail Federation. The trade group has predicted that November and December sales will reach $616.9 billion nationally.

If the estimate holds true, it would be the best increase from year to year since 2011.

Area big-box stores and mom-and-pop shops reported good sales heading into the final weekend before the holiday. Many of them expected that to hold true with after-Christmas sales.

Sara Pena, Target’s executive team leader of human resources, said sales seem to be comparable to last year, which is to say they’ve been good. As she stood in the bustling store, she said it likely will busy through the weekend as people use gift cards or make exchanges.

“Everyone’s trying to figure out what they’re keeping, what they need to return, maybe just exchanging it for different sizes,” she said. “So we’ll see pretty consistent foot traffic.”

In Merced’s downtown, two shops, The Armory and Helen & Louise, teamed for a sidewalk sale. The owners pushed racks of discounted clothes onto the walkways outside their stores.

Jackie Goodwin, the owner of Helen & Louise, said many of her customers know about the annual post-holiday sale and turn out for discounts. The locally owned store doesn’t get many returns, she said, but customers often come in looking to redeem their gift cards.

Retail sales during this busy season have been good, she said. “We were up,” she said. “ We had a very good season. November and December were very good.”

On a sour note, the big-box stores expect to see many returns and exchanges while the buildings are full of customers, so the time can be ripe for fraud.

“Return fraud has become an unfortunate trend in retail, thanks to thieves taking advantage of retailers’ return policies to benefit from the cash or store credit they don’t deserve,” said Bob Moraca, vice president of loss prevention for the National Retail Federation.

According to the trade group, retailers estimate $3.8 billion will be lost to return fraud this holiday season, up slightly from last year’s $3.4 billion. Overall, those polled estimate 5.5 percent of holiday returns are fraudulent.

This story was originally published December 26, 2014 at 3:57 PM with the headline "Holiday over, but sales still strong in Merced."