Metro

Squall’s a real shopper stopper

The post-Christmas shopping rush vanished under nearly two feet of city snow yesterday, with customers and store employees nowhere to be found.

At Rego Center in Queens, there were wide-open aisles and plenty of parking for anyone who managed to make it there. Bed, Bath & Beyond didn’t even bother opening, and Old Navy didn’t unlock its doors until 4 p.m.

Paul Goldsman, 29, hoofed it from his Forest Hills home and embraced all the open space.

“I took a healthy walk here, and this way I don’t have the long lines — so this is a pleasure,” Goldsman said. “There are no screaming babies, and there’s no lines at the cashier.”

Even in the middle of Manhattan, shoppers barely made a peep at stores that had been teeming with boisterous action just days ago in the closing hours of the Christmas rush.

At Macy’s in Herald Square, about half of staffers didn’t make it into work, employees said.

Many of the absent were managers who hold keys to turn on machines that deactivate anti-theft tags, so customers were forced to search for the few cash registers available to ring up sales.

At Bloomingdale’s on East 59th Street, about 40 percent of staffers didn’t show up for work, employees said. Bloomie’s didn’t have the manpower to open its cafe, Le Train Bleu.

Upper East Sider Carol Tassone enjoyed the lack of crowds but had problems making an exchange. “It was so empty I couldn’t even find a clerk to help me,” she said.

Maria De La Pezuela and her hubby, both also from the Upper East Side, had to call off their Miami vacation Sunday but said they didn’t mind sticking around the Big Apple.

“Our flight was canceled, but it’s great,” said De La Pezuela, who was also shopping for bargains at Bloomie’s.

“We wanted to be here for the storm anyway. It’s a different type of vacation!”

She said she was pleased not to see the usual throngs clogging the streets.

“We woke up, went to the park and realized the bridge-and-tunnel crowd wasn’t coming in today,” she said.

Visitors from cold-weather locales couldn’t understand what all the fuss was about.

Maude Dinael, 38, and her family were in town from Montreal to see their beloved Canadiens take on the Islanders in front of a ridiculously small crowd of 3,136 in Uniondale, LI, on Sunday.

“We’re happy. We’re used to this,” said Dinael, who was shopping with her two kids at Marshalls in Rego Park.

“This morning, everything is closed. We figured, let’s go shopping!”

Additional reporting by David K. Li

ikimulisa.livingston@nypost.com