Auburn native Nate Guerette, now living in Nashville, Tenn., looks at snowboards with Backwoods Snowboards & Skateboards Assistant Manager Regan Fotter at the Auburn store Monday. "It's Mom's Christmas present to me," Guerette said as he shopped with money from his mother the day after Christmas.
AUBURN — With the stress and frenzy of the holiday just past and schools and most offices closed, the day after Christmas was for many a day of rest. For workers in the retail sector, though, Monday was a day of returns, exchanges, clearance sales and long hours.
Jeremy Petrocelli, co-owner of Backwoods Snowboards & Skateboards in Auburn, helps a customer Monday. Many people were coming in to update their equipment with Christmas cash.
"We like to get all the printers and cameras back and then start to prepare for the Easter Bunny," Photo Finish photographer Brad Sloat said as he cleaned up Santa's visiting area at the Auburn Mall on the day after Christmas.
Ashlynn Williams of Turner, center, had a short wait in line with Rachel Clement, right, of Bangor, at Kmart on Monday to return a video camera Williams received for Christmas. Kmart employee Courtney St. Pierre, left, said a lot of people were exchanging clothes, mostly for a different size.
The day was defined by busy roads, no banks open and “really long lines,” said John Castonguay as he and his two antsy young daughters waited to exchange clothes that didn't fit at Kmart in Auburn.
“It's bananas,” Bull Moose Music Manager Alicia Turcotte said Monday afternoon. The store opened at 7 a.m. and saw a constant stream of customers throughout the day, she said. “Everybody's coming in with their gift cards, which is good,” Turcotte said.
The movie, music and video game retailer's busiest days of the year are typically right before Christmas — this year, lines snaked through the shop until almost midnight on Friday — and Monday, the last day of their extended holiday hours.
“We're definitely ready for it to be over,” Turcotte said Monday afternoon, about eight hours shy of their 12:30 a.m. closing time. “It's a relief.”
Other retailers will keep their holiday hours through the rest of the week, looking to cash in on after-holiday clearance sales and customers eager to spend the gift cards and cash they've received.
Best Buy in Auburn will stay open until 10 p.m. all week, an hour later than usual, Assistant Manager Pam Davis said. They, too, were busy Monday as shoppers came to exchange gifts and buy accessories for their new techno-toys.
This year's Christmas shopping season has been a successful one for the electronics store, Davis said. “I see a positive upswing” after sluggish sales in recent years, she said. “We're out of a lot of product” already, she said, and the store was eagerly awaiting a shipment due Wednesday so it could restock shelves.
Midpriced items were most popular this year, Davis said. Digital cameras, GPS devices and e-readers such as the recently released Kindle Fire were among the hottest.
“Technology isn't a luxury anymore,” she said. More and more people see tablet computers and smartphones as necessities, she said, and sales have reflected that.
Other area retailers reported similarly solid sales this holiday season as well. At Kmart in Auburn, Store Manager Joyce Beane said, “This store has been doing very well.”
Along with their popular layaway program, a new service allowing customers to order merchandise online then pick up from the store saw steady growth, Beane said. The program, which Auburn's Kmart has offered since late September, “really took off” after Black Friday, she said.
Books-A-Million, which opened two months ago in place of Waldenbooks in the Auburn Mall, reported a healthy holiday season. “Sales were really good. We were really, really busy,” Assistant Manager Pam Morris said. “We did way over what we expected to.”
While business was steady at larger retailers, the day after Christmas crush was even more noticeable at smaller, local shops such as Backwoods Snowboards and Skateboards in Auburn.
The week after Christmas is always super crazy,” owner Jeremy Petrocelli said as he took a break from helping the swarm of customers looking for new gear and tuneups on their boards.
“We had a very good preseason,” he said. On Monday, with holiday money and gift cards in people's pockets and snow on ski mountains big and small, business was reaching a fever pitch.
“We were slamming” until just before closing time, Petrocelli said Monday evening. “It's a good day for us.”
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