Metro

Shoppers take it all back

Goodbye, Santa. Hello, bargains!

With Christmas finally over, throngs of sale-crazy shoppers flocked to stores across New York yesterday in hopes of correcting Kris Kringle’s little mistakes and ringing in 2012 with huge savings.

“It’s crazy how chaotic it is,” said Alex, a 27-year-old college student who was exchanging a $230 sweater for a $200 button-down shirt at Saks Fifth Avenue. He declined to give his last name in an apparent bid to spare the gift giver’s feelings.

The Saks sale — in which many posh items at the high-end store were slashed up to 70 percent — led to “lots of pushing and shoving,” said one witness.

The crowd there got so large that worried workers had to close the eighth floor at one point.

“It’s scandalous, right?” said Rania Hallal, 26, who got stuck in the Saks crowd while trying to return $700 shoes.

”Hopefully, if they let us in in 20 minutes, hopefully, there’s still something left. It looks kind of scary. I’m, like, nervous to go down there now,” added the Brooklyn woman, who was there with a friend.

The crowds were also deep at Macy’s, where shoppers started showing up at 7 a.m. in hopes of exchanging unwanted gifts and capitalizing on discounts of up to 75 percent.

“We got here at 7 a.m. to beat the crowds, and thank God for that!” said Olga Borrero, 47, of Astoria. “Every year, I always tell myself, ‘Never again,’ but I always come back. I love a good sale.”

“I’m returning a Free People dress . . . probably just for another Free People dress,” said an exasperated Megan Harris, 22, of the East Village, who said the place was a “madhouse today, so I might just give up and go somewhere else.”

At Bloomingdale’s, a huge crowd showed up for discounts of at least 50 percent on many items.

“I got a Christmas bonus last week. I knew there was going to be a big sale after Christmas, so I waited to take advantage of it,” said Andrew Nestor, 25, who works in publicity in Manhattan. He said he saved more than $1,000 on shoes and two wool sports blazers.

“I’m happy with what I got. It’s good quality, so it’s worth it,” he said. “I wouldn’t be able to buy all three at full cost.”

The mob scene at stores around the city mirrored a national trend this year, as a new poll found that 40 percent of Americans expect to go shopping early this week in hope of scoring huge bargains.

According to the survey by Consumer Reports, 82 percent of those who plan to go shopping are doing so to play Santa to themselves at discounted prices.

Another 47 percent are planning to redeem gift cards they got for Christmas, and 31 percent will exchange something they didn’t like.

The poll also found that the majority who won’t be shopping this week are simply sick of it after buying gifts for the holidays.

Despite the crowds, many shoppers who were out yesterday felt that those who stayed home were missing out on a great time.

“This is much better than Harrods!” exclaimed shopper Kim Calfe, a tourist from London, who was at Macy’s with her daughter, Katie.

“We’ve spent about $300 so far. We’ve bought Macy’s logo bags, Macy’s gifts for friends and lots of makeup and a pair of Converse shoes,” said Calfe.

Also at Macy’s, 39-year-old Octavia Joseph, of Brooklyn, said she hated one shirt she got as a gift so much that she had no hesitation about braving the crowd.

“I returned a slinky gold club shirt from BCBG because I realized I wasn’t going to wear it — and I’d much rather have the cash!” she told The Post.

“I got a lip pencil from Mac, and it was just the wrong color. It looked awful on me,” said Rhonda Harris, 48, who was at the store with her daughter, Meghan, 28. “So I exchanged it for the right one. Much better!”

At the Queens Center mall, Michelle Lopez, 31, was returning some panties to Victoria’s Secret that her brother bought her.

“My brother bought me some panties here in the wrong size. He didn’t want to offend me,” she said.

“I’m shopping for bras, because this is a buy-one-get-one-50-percent-off sale,” she said.

Reza Islam, 29, of Forest Hills, went to Macy’s at the Queens mall to exchange some perfume and jewelry for a purple leather jacket.

“I didn’t like it that much. I’m returning it for someone else,” she said. “They are back home in Bangladesh, and we’re going to take it there to them.”

Some were hungry for bargains, no matter how small.

“I came here last week, and I wanted sweats,” said Sarah Ramdhan, 15, of Richmond Hill, Queens. “Today, they are $5 less.”

Even “Santa” showed up the day after Christmas looking for a sale.

“The prices are excellent today on everything, especially clothing,” said Diego Santa, 48, of Jackson Heights, Queens, at Aeropostale at the Queens mall.

“I’m saving more than $400. Honestly, everything is at 50 percent off.”

Additional reporting by Todd Venezia, Jennifer Gould Keil, and Georgett Roberts