Alfretta Ruhter and Lynda Thompson just couldn’t stay away.
A day after Christmas, the pair were back at the Aurora Mall, snacking on pizza from Sbarro and clutching shopping bags bearing Macy’s red-star logo.
“We were just kind of bored and wanted to get out of the house,” said Ruhter.
Thousands of metro-area shoppers joined Ruhter and Thompson on Tuesday, pouring into malls and discount stores, snapping up after-Christmas bargains, returning unwanted gifts and spending the gift cards they received for Christmas.
Ruhter and Thompson said they scored great prices on shirts from Macy’s and were planning to shop for holiday bargains at Bath & Body Works and Linens N’ Things before heading home.
While traffic at several metro-area stores was strong enough to cause backups in parking lots and lines at some cash registers, preliminary data showed that the year-over-year gain in holiday retail sales could disappoint some retailers.
Several analysts were already ratcheting down their forecasts Tuesday, resigned to the fact that the season won’t be as good as they had hoped.
Bill Martin, co-founder of ShopperTrak RCT Corp., said he expects holiday sales growth could be as low as 4.5 percent. He had originally forecast a 5 percent gain. ShopperTrak is a Chicago-based research company that tracks total sales for more than 45,000 retailers.
Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, pared his same- store sales-growth forecast for the November-December period to 2.5 percent from his original 3.0 percent.
Same-store sales, or sales at stores open at least a year, are the industry standard for retailers’ health.
Visa USA shaved its holiday growth forecast to 6.5 percent, from 7.5 percent.
But for Denver-area shoppers, Tuesday was simply about the bargains.
Ann Duncan of Denver said she was having an easier time finding discounted Christmas items this year.
“I think it was because of the snowstorm,” Duncan said as she navigated her nearly full shopping cart down an aisle stocked with Christmas decorations. “I come out every year when I can, and usually the aisles are torn apart by this time.”
Duncan had already grabbed a stuffed holiday bear, a holiday tin and some Christmas bows. She was contemplating buying an inflatable lawn decoration for her son-in-law, but even at half-price she thought it was still on the expensive side.
When it came to nonholiday merchandise, some shoppers were disappointed by a lack of broad discounts.
“I was hoping to get a digital camera on sale, but they were all full price,” Tracy Neff of Aurora said as she and her family took a break from shopping to eat lunch at a Baja Fresh restaurant.
“I guess I’ll just have to wait and watch the ads until they put them on sale,” Neff said.
At the Aspen Grove shopping center in Littleton, shoppers jammed the sidewalk and youngsters tossed snowballs at one another. Inside, many stores were filled with shoppers redeeming gift cards.
Murph Super-Hill of Denver had taken her mother, Vinita Super, and friend Karen Levesque, both visiting from Phoenix, to Aspen Grove so Super-Hill’s daughters could spend their gift cards at Build- A-Bear Workshop.
Before long, they were toting bags from other stores as well.
“I’ve already bought plenty for her,” Super said, motioning to her daughter.
“I guess this will be a late Christmas gift or an early birthday gift,” she said, pulling a red and black sweater out of a paper shopping bag.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
Staff writer Kristi Arellano can be reached at 303-954-1902 or karellano@denverpost.com.
