Christmas was a time for giving — and now is the time for giving back all the stuff we don’t want.
Today will be a huge shopping day as consumers rush to return unwanted gifts, and stores entice buyers with super sales. Some folks couldn’t even wait until today to get rid of their clunker presents.
Dane Steele Green and fiancé Joshua Ingraham spent Christmas morning with family opening gifts and Christmas afternoon at home filling out paperwork to send many of them back.
“The returns are already waiting for the UPS man,” Green said. “Apparently, my future mother-in-law thinks I’m an extra extra large.
“You have to act like you love everything,” he added, “but sometimes gifts don’t work out.”
Judy, 42, of Manhattan, is already planning to make a beeline for Bloomingdale’s today to return a black sweater she received from her mother-in-law.
She didn’t feel bad, though, because it wasn’t personal.
“It’s the same one she got for my two sisters-in-law!” she said, declining to give her last name. “I’ll return mine tomorrow for something I like better.”
Eric Short, manager of the Lacoste on Fifth Avenue, said people will see big deals when they hit the stores today.
“I would say about 90 percent of the store is 25 to 50 percent off today,” he said.
Macy’s today begins its “Week of Wonderful” and is offering up to 80 percent off through Jan. 1.
The first 300 shoppers who arrive at Lord & Taylor today and tomorrow will get a $20 or $40 bonus discount card. At Kohl’s, shoppers can get 60 to 70 percent off clothes, and early birds can also get an extra 10 percent off select merchandise.
Hayley Corwick, editor of MadisonAvenueSpy.com, recommends shoppers start early today for the deepest discounts on clearance items.
“I’m a big proponent of in-store shopping,” Corwick told The Post, adding that many stores have incentives just to get you inside. “People might not have gotten exactly what they wanted, so they’ll go in to return something and pick up something extra, too. That’s the stores’ strategy.”
She should know, since even she will be waiting in the return lines today.
“I am going to return what my husband gave me,” she said.