Slow start to after Christmas shopping

Between returns, gift cards, and door buster sales you would think the Westfield Mall in Palm Desert would be packed with post-Christmas shoppers, but that wasn’t the case earlier today.

“I thought it was going to be more a little bit busier, but it wasn’t too bad, so it just looks like a regular day,” says Lakeshia Smith who stood in line at 7 a.m. to win a gift card to H&M.

“The days before Christmas it was pretty busy and we had like waves of people coming in and now it’s like more calm,” says Claudia Lopez an employee at the Oakwest shoe store.

“There weren’t huge crowds, I was surprised,” says Cyrena Shirley. “I thought it would be packed, we got here around 9:30 and there was plenty of space in the parking lot and we didn’t have any huge lines, it was good.”

Many of the shoppers we talked to were cashing in gift cards they received the day before.

“I’ve never been shopping after Christmas so I was looking online and it said there was a lot of deals so I just decided to come,” says Jenevive Valdez.

Crowds started to pick up later in the evening.

Retail experts say more than 20% of returns for the year happen during the holiday season. That equals about $60 billion in merchandise.