Shoppers hit the stores to take advantage of post-holiday sales

BURLINGTON, Vt. (WCAX) - The holiday shopping season may start with Black Friday, but the deals don’t end once Christmas is over. Many shoppers were out in Burlington Monday to take advantage of the post-holiday bargains.

Stores up and down the Church Street Marketplace were busy with people getting in some post-holiday retail therapy.

“If you were lucky enough to get Christmas cash then you can spend it today,” shopper Kristin Jordan said.

“Also, a good time to fill in gaps of ours and things we missed her Christmas holiday,” shopper Chris Crawford said.

The days after Christmas are a huge draw for many shoppers looking to take advantage of great deals or take back some things that weren’t the best fit.

“Ever since we opened, we’ve got a lot of customers coming through both for exchanging gifts that they might want something else for and using the gift cards for Christmas,” said Virginia Farley of the Outdoor Gear Exchange.

“Right now, it’s half and half with the returns and the exchanges. It’s definitely pretty much half, so there’s still been a lot of people who are buying which is nice,” said Marc Hughes of the Vermont Flannel Company.

Some shops say the number of customers in their stores the day after Christmas almost rival the numbers they saw in the days right before the holiday.

“This will match probably what we saw last week before Christmas. The final few days before Christmas were busy... In terms of numbers, it’ll definitely be in the thousands,” Farley said.

“I had no clue what it was going to be like, and it’s been pretty good, it’s been consistent with at least over 100 people in here already,” Hughes said.

It’s not just in-person shopping that’s taking off. Shoppers I spoke to say they’ve also done a lot of damage online.

“I did mostly online,” shopper Hailey Jordan said. “I was at college for it so I did a lot of like Amazon Etsy, like online stuff for everyone.”

“Online shopping before Christmas because we avoided the crowds and in person after Christmas,” Crawford said.

The U.S. Postal Service says now that the festivities are mostly over, they’re shifting focus to what they call return season.

“The number of packages being purchased online, you have instead people lining up at the counters in the stores to exchange and return items, they’re returning them by mail and online also,” said Steve Doherty of USPS.

But even though online shopping is increasingly convenient, people I spoke to say waiting for the best after-Christmas sales is what they prefer, especially if they get to do it with family.

“This year has been really unique because of the weather. It’s been awesome to have family around and do some shopping and spend some time together,” Kristin Jordan said.

USPS says they expect to be busy fulfilling these holiday returns until February.

Copyright 2022 WCAX. All rights reserved.