Santa Barbara shopping spree sees gift returns, post-holiday sales

SANTA BARBARA, Calif. — Christmas has concluded but it was all about the bargains for people in Paseo Nuevo this afternoon.

Veronica Breen came to shop with her entire family.

“No returns, we were so lucky,” she said. “We’re here to spend money, we’re here to shop.”

The line was long outside of Lululemon on State Street, slammed with shoppers seeking to exchange items.

Addie Tuttli waited nearly 20 minutes before being able to enter the store.

“I had an idea it’d be this busy the day after Christmas, but I didn’t know it was going to be this long of a line,” she said.

“I was actually expecting it to be a lot more dead, so this is perfect,” Breen said. “We love to see everybody out creating money for the community.”

Even though the gift giving season has come and gone, there were still plenty of deals and discounts to be discovered.

“Amazing deals, there are some good deals today,” one shopper Brigitte Davis said. “A lot of deals.”

“With coronavirus happening, you need to look for the deals every time,” another shopper Lior Mageni said.

Over at Metro Entertainment on West Anapamu Street, it was gift cards galore.

“Everybody’s got all that leftover excitement from the holidays,” store manager Jim Tourville said. “There’s a lot of gift cards that have gone out, so people want to spend them as soon as they can.”

For those that need to return gifts, some stores will not accept items that have already been opened.

“As long as it’s still sealed up, we’re happy to exchange it for something you like or give you a refund,” Tourville concluded.

Each year, Americans return an average of nearly $90 billion worth of gifts.