TheBakersfieldCalifornian.com

Andrea Borrego was relieved Friday to find a northwest side Wal-Mart had dedicated two checkout lanes exclusively to returns.

Borrego, 27, had a few Secret Santa gifts to return, including a marinade sauce for barbecuing.

“I don’t own a barbecue,” she said, chuckling. “I think this was a re-gifter, that’s what I think.”

As predictable as the frenzied shopping in the weeks prior to the holidays is the post-Christmas run on stores to return or exchange gifts, or snatch up bargains.

Less certain is whether Friday’s sales were strong enough to make up for a shopping season some have labeled the worst in decades.

SpendingPulse, which monitors purchases paid for by credit, checks or cash, said retail sales this holiday season fell by between 5.5 percent and 8 percent below last year’s totals, the Associated Press reported. Sales dropped by only 2 percent to 4 percent excluding auto and gas sales, according to SpendingPulse.

A fuller indicator of how retailers fared will arrive Jan. 8, when major stores report same-store sales, or sales at locations open at least a year, for December.

Lines at Wal-Mart moved quickly Friday morning.

“It hasn’t been bad at all,” Borrego said. “I expected it to be packed, way worse.”

Danny Del Valle, 41, and his wife emerged from Wal-Mart with a shopping cart overflowing with ornaments and other Christmas decorations, most of them purchased for half price.

“They’ve got some good deals in there,” he said.

Del Valle shops post-holiday clearance sales every year, and has plenty of room to store goodies until next year, when he can use the decorations.

VALLEY PLAZA

Everywhere there were lines at Valley Plaza Friday — lines to park, lines to eat, lines to buy soda from vending machines.

Store manager Nancy Viel was pleased to see the bustle. Her store, Whitehall Jewelers, was set to close for good at the end of the day along with all the chain’s locations.

“For us it was great,” she said of the holiday season. Friday’s sales were particularly strong, she added, “more than I expected.”

Similar words came from Carlos Esqueda, first assistant manager at Zumiez, an apparel and skate shop at the mall.

Not only did Friday’s activity exceed expectations with all the customers returning and buying goods, but so did the last few months.

“Seriously, (sales totals are) just like the previous years,” he said. “I mean, we lucked out.”

EAST HILLS

Before noon, the hallways inside East Hills Mall were nearly empty.

Some folks showed up for the final two days of Mervyns’ operations.

Richard Green loaded a few bags of store fixtures into his white Chevy pickup.

“It looks like junk, but this stuff’s a gold mine,” Green said.

The department store chain is in liquidation bankruptcy. Everything inside — glass display cases, wooden shelves that once held Levi’s jeans, interior separators — was for sale.

Others bought up the last stash of clothing and accessories, which had been moved to a single section under signs announcing 80 percent off everything.

The Mervyns site at the mall’s west end will sit near another empty shell, the former Harris store, which Gottschalks occupied until last spring. That’s when it consolidated at the east end of the mall.

Smaller shops are closing, too.

East Hills Beauty Supply had several going-out-of-business signs taped in its windows.

The Russo’s Books location was in its final days before the independent bookseller consolidates at its Marketplace site.

Even driving into the mall, the Pier 1 Imports on Mall View Road sports a real estate broker’s sign indicating the building is available. The store is slated to close in February, a staffer said.

Inside Gottschalks, shoppers eyed sale items, though plenty of elbow room was available. The Fresno-based retail chain posted big losses this year. It is searching for an investor as share prices crumble.

Nearly two dozen people crowded around a live demonstration of garnishing knives, ooh-ing and aah-ing when the seller displayed a cucumber shark and a palm tree fashioned from a carrot, potato and green pepper.

Five members of the Brast family had come for Gottschalks’ after-Christmas sale.

Novella Brast, the matriarch, was pleased to pick up a sweater and a blouse, each at 70 percent off.

The family planned to grab lunch and head home, their shopping day complete.

Staff writers John Cox and Gretchen Wenner and the Associated Press contributed to this report.