Gift cards, sales lure shoppers to Gilroy
Gilroy – Shoppers from around the region headed to Gilroy this week, intent to start spending Christmas gift certificates and to cash in on post-holiday sales.
“Monday was like Black Friday,” said Mike Millet, manager of Factory Brand Shoes in the Gilroy Premium Outlets, referring to the day after Thanksgiving.
He said the discount shoe store had already met its annual sales targets and expected a steady flow of customers this week brandishing gift cards, which are recorded as sales only after they are redeemed.
Roger Haskin, a Morgan Hill resident, browsed for himself at Barnes & Noble Tuesday while his mother and brother looked for ways to spend the $50 gift certificates he gave them over the weekend.
“It lets them have more of a choice of what to buy,” Haskin said of the “stocking stuffers.”
Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, expects that 20 percent of gift card holders will redeem their cards this week.
Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers Inc., which operates or owns 23 malls in 11 states, reported that 25 percent of those redeeming gift cards Monday were spending over the value of the card.
Jan Fortini, a Barnes & Noble department manager, said the Gilroy store this week began its “dot sale” by slashing 50 percent from a range of products.
“We’re doing really well,” Fortini said of the customer volume, though she expected the biggest number of people to shop after working hours.
According to ShopperTrak RCT Corp., the week after Christmas accounted for 10 percent of holiday sales last year, but analysts expect the post-holiday period could account for as much as 14 percent this year, given the increasing popularity of gift cards.
Consumer electronic chains such as Best Buy were highlighting CDs, DVDs and video games in their advertising, counting on shoppers to feed the gadgets they received for the holiday.
Dozens of people stood in line at Best Buy Tuesday afternoon, with nearly as many shoppers waiting to exchange or return gifts.
Store employees stocking newly delivered iPod digital music players said they continue to be the hottest item this year.
“We would get shipments in the store and they’d be gone in half an hour,” said sales associate Jenny Evenson, estimating they sold at least 1,000 units. “We couldn’t keep them in the store.”
Alan Cook, a Sacramento resident, picked up a new DVD player at Best Buy.
He said this year he gave out a lot of gift certificates.
“Let’s face it, people don’t have as much time anymore,” he said. “But a gift card isn’t a blow-off. When you have one, you can get whatever you want.”
His sister Mary Dezelle, of Aromas, was not cashing in any gift cards but had returned a “mobility” scooter to Costco a few hours earlier. Dezelle, who explained she didn’t need the scooter after a new medication helped cure her of rheumatoid arthritis, said “it felt good to take it back.”
