Christmas may be white — but the next day is all about “the green.”
Throngs of gleeful shoppers rushed to high-end retail stores yesterday to cash in on after-Christmas bargains — and return unwanted gifts.
Savvy shoppers in Manhattan traded tacky turtlenecks and clunky cameras for marked-down brands at shops such as Saks Fifth Avenue, Best Buy and Bloomingdale’s — some of which offered discounts of up to 80 percent.
“We’re allergic to paying full price — so we got everything!” said Kay Jackson, a 57-year-old psychologist shopping at Lord & Taylor.
She took home a bundle of discounted sweaters and business clothes, including an Anne Klein suit marked down 80 percent, from $300 to $60.
She and other bargain-hunters said it was worth braving lines — which started to form at 6 a.m. — to score rare discounts on designer clothes and top-notch electronics.
“I came to look for deals!” said Christian Canela, 32, who bought a 60-inch flat-screen TV, marked down 20 percent at Best Buy in Midtown.
By 8 a.m., Saks had already lured a line of shoppers stretching around the block to its “50 percent off” sale.
The store was a shopping frenzy inside, where chic name brands such as Rag & Bone dresses were marked down 70 percent, from $625 to $187.
At one point, a flustered clerk shouted, “Stroller coming through!” to help a young mother exit the fashion-mob scene.
Deals at other shops included a half-price BCBG dresses, marked down from $198 to $99 at Macy’s, and a 25-percent-off 55-inch Samsung flat-screen TV, marked down from $3,099 to $2,299.
This year’s holiday shopping season got off to a busy start, with Americans spending $59.1 billion over the four-day Thanksgiving weekend, according to the National Retail Federation.
Shops and manufacturers are now expected to spend billions of dollars reboxing, restocking and reselling electronics.
But that didn’t faze eager shoppers, who were happy to take a second shot at Christmas wish lists — for themselves and others.
Sonia Diaz, a 45-year-old barista, rushed to Best Buy in Midtown to purchase a belated gift for her young daughter.
She returned a $179 Samsung electronic tablet, then used store credit to pay for part of an iPad Mini, which she then gave to her 7-year-old daughter.
“It’s not a present— it’s an investment. [She] will do a lot of homework on the way to and from school,” Diaz said.
Dec. 26 is historically the second-biggest shopping day of the year, behind Black Friday, according to the National Retail Federation.