By Chris Fuchs
“I bought a house today,” he said nonchalantly. Well, the house wasn't exactly on the dolly, but all of the trappings like furniture and a small television set were. Still, one creature comfort for his new summer home in Windam, N.Y. was conspicuously absent: a mattress.
“We'll probably get that at another BJs on the way up,” he said.
Davaros was among scores of shoppers who had descended on the 20th Avenue shopping complex to grab after-Christmas sales discounts of as much as 50 percent at Target and to go through the time-honored ritual of returning unwanted holiday gifts.
Retail analysts said the nation's retailers were hoping for strong after-Christmas sales this week to bolster a weak holiday shopping season. The Christmas buying period accounts for about half of most retailers' sales for the year.
The store managers of several retail outlets in College Point said they anticipated merchandise returns would be heavier this year than last year, in large part because of the increasing number of items purchased over the web. Stores like Circuit City and Target have web sites from which customers can make purchases, and if they wish to return items bought over the Internet, they may do so at any store in the chain throughout the United States.
“Last year for Christmas we had maybe 1 percent of web sales,” said Kevin Dunning, an assistant manager of Circuit City. “And this year, we probably had about 10 percent. So we had a good chunk of business where customers could buy on the web and come on in and pick it up.”
The same was true of returns at Target, another chain store in the shopping center, said Jerry Finkelstein, an assistant manager.
“We have had some people who bought Internet items and came in to return them,” he said. Biding their time as they waited to return gifts, a dozen or so customers stood on line quietly, sliding their palms back and forth along the ropes that sectioned them off. Alternately, Finkelstein noted that he also expected a significant amount of sales Tuesday, owing to the 50 percent discount offered on certain store items.
But not every customer was sprinting to the return counter Tuesday. Some were partaking in day-after-Christmas shopping, searching for posthumous Christmas gifts.
“My niece said it was cheaper and that I should wait until after Christmas,” said Barry Bell, of Jamaica, with a look of contentment on his face. He said he had just saved $20 on a stereo.
Like the other stores, Modells, a short distance away from Circuit City, also had a tightly woven return plan in place. The point: “To make the customer's visit painless,” said Charlie Maffia, an assistant store manager.
To that end, Maffia stood near the entranceway of the store, intercepting customers as they walked through with merchandise to be returned. The customer's items were examined, and the ones they were returning were found on the receipt, then circled. Next they had the option of getting their money back or making an equitable exchange.
Maffia demonstrated the algorithm on a firefighter from Engine Company 295, in Whitestone, who was bringing back a Mets shirt.
“No fire trucks accepted,” Maffia quipped when the firefighter, clad in his bunker gear, first entered. “You have your receipt?” Maffia then asked.
“Yeah,” the firefighter replied, handing it to Maffia for inspection. “I'm looking for one size bigger,” the firefighter said.
“Go get the other one and then get on line,” Maffia said.
“The whole thrust of this is to make it a painless process for the customer rather than antagonizing them more after having a rough Christmas,” he said.
