Shoppers return for post-Christmas bargains

McALLEN — Mauricio Valdez braved the shopping crowds on Wednesday with one purpose in mind — a Blu-ray disc player to complement the big-screen, high-definition television he received for Christmas.

The Monterrey resident ended up facing long lines at Best Buy, but he found a Sony next-generation DVD player, regularly priced at $399, for the more modest price of $299.

“I have an HDTV and I needed something that would play high-definition movies,” Valdez said in Spanish. “It’s the only reason I came.”

However, he did manage to pick up a few Blue-ray movies while he was at it.

As if Christmas never even happened, shoppers flooded retail centers and malls across the Rio Grande Valley on Wednesday with regular holiday fervor, looking for post-Christmas sales and returning unwanted gifts.

The day after Christmas is traditionally one of the busiest shopping days of the year. Retail-research firm Shoppertrak predicted Dec. 26 would be the nation’s sixth busiest shopping day in 2007.

Many stores in McAllen opened early and marked down merchandise Wednesday morning, a la post-Thanksgiving, hoping to draw in customers and extend the holiday sales boom just a few more days.

“We had people waiting outside at 5 a.m.,” said Mahmoud Zaqout, who runs the Target store on North 10th Street in McAllen.

The store didn’t open until 7 a.m.

Seasonal decorations and gift packages were some of the most popular items with shoppers, Zaqout said.

“Everyone is looking for a good deal,” he said.

At La Plaza Mall, Macy’s department store had its own lines of eager shoppers before the store opened, according to manager Murry Tolkov.

“We opened this morning with a pretty sizable crowd, even though we opened at 6 a.m.,” Tolkov said.

Crowds at the mall were comparable to any pre-Christmas shopping day, he said.

“We have some good sales,” he said. “A lot of the seasonal stuff gets marked down and you see sales on a lot of the sweaters, coats, and a lot of the giftables, like digital (picture) frames.”

Some shoppers were simply looking for that much-wanted gift they couldn’t find during the pre-Christmas season.

After a phone call from his sister-in-law, Alex Gutierrez made a stop by Best Buy to find the coveted Nintendo Wii video game console.

“We couldn’t find it before Christmas, so they sent me out to get it today,” he said. The gift was for a family member.

The Wii sighting wasn’t a secret for long — just minutes after store employees put the video game system out, voracious shoppers snatched them up.

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Kyle Arnold covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. You can reach him at (956) 683-4410.