Sonoma County shoppers search for post-Christmas bargains

After taking a break Christmas Day to spend time with family and unwrap gifts tucked under the tree, shoppers returned in force to stores in Sonoma County looking for items still on their wish lists.

A never-ending stream of customers poured through the doors Friday afternoon at the Best Buy on Santa Rosa Avenue. Manager Chas Stanley found about two dozen customers waiting outside the store before it opened at 9 a.m. - an hour earlier than normal.

“We’ve seen a lot of folks doing exchanges,” Stanley said, adding that many were bringing in high-end headphones, TVs and other electronics to exchange for different colors and sizes.

Others, including Vanessa and Mike Reynolds, were in search of post-Christmas bargains. The Santa Rosa couple eyed a 50-inch flat-screen television that was on sale for their 12-year-old son, Devon, who received a PlayStation 4 for the holidays.

“One purchase forced another,” Mike Reynolds said.

At the nearby Target, traffic started to pick up around noon.

“You get waves of people,” said Ygor Coelho, a store employee manning the guest services desk. Despite the crowds Friday, he said customers were in good spirits. Some came in wearing Santa Claus hats.

“Everyone is extremely polite and jolly,” Coelho said.

The day after Christmas was expected to be the second-busiest shopping day this year, bringing in more customer traffic than even Black Friday, according to analytics firm ShopperTrak. The Saturday before Christmas held the No. 1 spot.

With Christmas falling on a Thursday this year, many consumers took Friday off to create an extended weekend. That, the firm said, should lead to a “flood of shoppers taking advantage of post-Christmas sales.”

While many were returning items ranging from electronics to toys and home goods at Target, Natalie Peterson, a team leader, said other customers were coming in for the post-Christmas discounts on apparel. Many customers also were coming in to use gift cards they received for the holidays.

Peterson said some shoppers may have been reluctant to come in Friday, expecting an after-?Christmas “rush.” However, she said, they’ll likely see heavier traffic this weekend as people try to spend their gift cards.

“We’re expecting it to pick up,” Peterson said.

Gift cards continue to be a popular option on Christmas. The National Retail Federation estimated gift card spending to reach nearly $32 billion this year. It found in one of its surveys that the average person who bought gift cards would spend about $173, roughly $10 more than the previous year.

Petaluma resident Greg Burnett used the gift cards he received from his parents to buy an Xbox One with a Kinect sensor at Best Buy.

“My parents used to buy me gifts,” said Burnett, 23. “Now, they buy me gift cards. It makes it easier. I can buy what I want.”

Burnett scored the game console bundle for $150 less than the regular price, which his brother John, 25, said was as good of a deal as the one advertised during Black Friday and the days leading up to Christmas. And, he added, there were no crowds to push through to get the game.

“Everything seems well stocked,” he said about the store. “It was picked clean on Christmas Eve.”

Like the Burnetts, Rachelle Rodriguez and her kids - ?Allison, 17, and Jose, 10 - were ready to spend their gift cards, which they received from relatives and their landlord.

After returning unwanted items at a cosmetics shop, they were ready to head to Target and then hit Santa Rosa Plaza, where Allison Rodriguez said she saw up to 60 percent off brand-name clothing. Her brother hoped to buy large headphones to watch videos and play games on his Nintendo 3DS.

Meanwhile, their mother said, “I’m just the taxi driver.”

You can reach Staff Writer Eloísa Ruano González at 521-5458 or eloisa.gonzalez@pressdemocrat.com. On Twitter @eloisanews.