LEWISTON — Bye-bye doldrums. Hello sales.

That’s the sense coming from the backrooms and offices in a number of local shops, where the holiday receipts are still being tallied.

“Boy, did it change from last year,” Paul Poliquin, the owner of Paul’s Clothing & Shoe Store, said. “It was a whole different Christmas season.”

His Lisbon Street business, which specializes in work clothes and boots, broke months of flat sales and leaped by about 10 percent, beginning in October.

“The attitude from shoppers was more friendly,” he said. “There was more disposable income.”

And Poliquin’s story is not unique.

Auburn-based Agren Appliance and Television saw a jump in sales this year. So did Lamey-Wellehan Shoes. So did Republic Jewelry and Collectibles.

“We’re up over last year,” said Dan Cunliffe, Republic’s owner. Though the numbers are still fluid — after all, the season isn’t quite over — he said there was growth on both sides of his business. People bought both collectibles and more jewelry then ever before. They also seemed to be comparison shopping more than before.

“They’d come in after visiting five other jewelry stores,” Cunliffe said. “We saw that a lot.”

The trend seemed to follow preliminary national numbers.

SpendingPulse, a company that tracks MasterCard sales across the country, released a report on Monday that referred to this as the “bounce back” season.

 “If last year’s holiday story was about gaining some stability, this year’s is about getting back to growth,” SpendingPulse Vice President Michael McNamara said in a report. “The 2010 holiday period is categorized by strong year-over-year growth in apparel and continued strength in eCommerce. We also saw a noticeable return in spending in the larger ticket items, as exemplified by the solid growth in jewelry, luxury and even the furniture category.”

At Agren Appliance, the season was kicked off by a Black Friday sale that seemed to continue right through December, owner Jason Agren said.

For him, some of the strength in sales came from an oversupply of flat panel TVs, which drove prices down and drew buyers. He also saw a bump in appliance sales. During lean times, most appliance sales happen when people are replacing a machine that breaks. When consumer confidence is higher, the stores seem to sell more packages that cater to people building homes or renovating and need to outfit their whole kitchen.

That’s already begun to climb, he said.

“As we get to spring, I expect those sales will be really, really strong,” he said.

Jim Wellehan, the president of Lamey-Wellehan Shoes, said the season marked the second strong Christmas in a row.

Each of the company’s seven stores saw a 10 to 12 percent jump over last year.

“We’re very pleased,” he said. But he said he worries that for some buyers, new shoes were a small luxury that overshadowed bigger economic problems.

Maine needs more manufacturing jobs and better access to education, said Wellehan, who has spearheaded campaigns aimed at giving new and gently used shoes to people who cannot afford them. “We need to get ourselves back.”

Poliquin thinks people are on the way.

About 90 percent of his clothing is sold to commercial and industrial clients, including road workers, home contractors and commercial builders.

Until recently, he had stopped inquiring if they were hiring.

“‘Don’t even ask,'” he said they told him.

Now, he is slowly hearing jobs opening up.

“I feel good about 2011,” he said.

He is also heartened by his customers, who tell him they’d rather buy from local merchants rather than big box retailers. They like the service and being sold something by the store owner, he said.

“I hear it over and over again,” he said.

He expanded his shop on the corner of Lisbon and Chestnut streets on Oct. 1 and began hanging the day-glow work coats in the corner windows. His boom started immediately, and hasn’t stopped yet.

“I would love to spend another 35 years here,” Poliquin said.

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