Now that Christmas is over, it’s time to go back to the store!

People want to spend their gift cards. That, and the need to return or exchange merchandise, make the week between Christmas and New Year’s busy enough for most retailers, says Illinois Retail Merchants Association president Rob Karr.

“They find good deals between now and the first of the year. With gift cards being so popular, retailers will continue to run promotions into the middle of January. Yes, you will find heightened traffic this week.”

Karr says 2023 shapes up to be a pretty good year.

“It’ll be a while before we know the final data, but we didn’t see anything that would go off of the three or four percent increase over last year.”

Karr says the local brick-and-mortar shop can provide the kind of individualized service you can’t get from a web site, and you can only sometimes get from a big-box chain store.