VIRGINIA BEACH, Va. — Consumers are spending this year. According to a Mastercard Poll, this year's retail sales grew by more than three percent in stores and online across the country. Additionally, the National Retail Federation indicated the holiday shopping season is seeing its typical growth.
Tuesday in Hampton Roads folks hit the Oceanfront in a post-Christmas haze.
"How was the holiday shopping season for you this year?" News 3 asked residents.
"Easy. We didn't do it," laughed Larry Eide of Virginia Beach. "We just do a very simple Christmas as far as gifts go. We just did mostly gift cards and cash this year."
"Not much different this year than any other," added Tony Harriman of Springfield.
While some consumers might have wrapped up their spending, others said holiday shopping's never over.
"I'm a 'sales person' so I try to catch the sales when they come by whether that's Fourth of July, Labor Day, Black Friday, whatever. Even if I have to purchase them and save them until the next year," said Gloria Toxey Jones, who was in Virginia Beach visiting family.
D. Nachnani, president at Coastal Edge, said the sales are one big draw for customers the day after Christmas.
"Our after Christmas is just as important as our before Christmas," said Nachnani.
He added that customers also come in to the store on the 25th to make exchanges or to spend newly-acquired holiday gift cards.
Thankfully, they're not forgetting them. Consumer finance company Bankrate reports that 47% of American adults have at least one unspent gift card averaging $187 per person. But those people are in luck, under federal law consumers have at least 5 years to redeem them.
This season, Nachnani reports Coastal Edge saw a shopping slowdown after Black Friday. He said that's likely due to having five weeks instead of four between Black Friday and Christmas.
But he said sales picked up just before the 25th and are still going strong.
"Those last ten days became very critical. And sure enough our customers showed up," smiled Nachnani.
Coastal Edge's big sellers this year? Lots of stocking suffers.
Coastal Edge isn't the only business that's confident shoppers will keep turning up either.
The Retail Alliance reports that 84% of Hampton Roads' small businesses are confident they will see improvement over the next six months.
