Businesses, malls fill with shoppers day after Christmas

ST. LOUIS COUNTY, Mo. – It was a busy day for businesses and malls, as shoppers return or exchange their gifts the day after Christmas.

At the West County Mall, shoppers took advantage of the big sales.

Some tips to make sure that your returns and exchanges go smoothly: make sure to keep the receipt, and try to make sure the packaging is still intact.

Lauren Clutts wanted herself some birthday presents.

“The better sales sometimes fall the day after Christmas. So we go through, and I find all the sales cause they’re getting rid of everything that was there for Christmas, they’re getting rid of pretty much everything that I usually look for,” she said.

“Anybody who has birthdays between Christmas and New Year’s, you should always go shopping now because people are either returning it, and you get the better deals, and you at least get to treat yourself right after the holiday.”

Sutton Webb and Emmy Bertino also wanted to treat themselves.

“We just had Christmas money, so we wanted to spend it and get new clothes and makeup,” Webb said.

“Yeah, with all the sales and stuff, we wanted to see what was on sale,” Bertino said.

And despite how busy the mall was, the friends managed to get some of what they were looking for.

“I was looking for like clothes and skincare,” Webb said. “And I got good clothes, but there wasn’t super good skincare ’cause it was gone.”

“I got some skincare from Sephora,” Bertino said.

Other folks, like Joe Vogl, were brought here by their significant others.

“Well, that you would have to ask my wife. She controls that aspect of the agenda, and I’m fine with it as long as there’s a chair to sit on,” he said.

Vogl said he’s happy to sit back and watch the crowds of shoppers.

“It’s hard to remind myself this is Monday. And I know it’s vacation day for school kids, a lot of businesses are closed, but there’s just a healthy group of people here, and that’s encouraging,” he said.

Clothes, makeup, skincare, and technology were the items people were hoping to catch on sale or at a discount.