Gift cards, returns fuel Boxing Day at retailers

On the day after Christmas, pandemic-weary shoppers were venturing out, while trying to be safe.

“Much of it has been online, just because of COVID,” said Tierra Sanchez of Shoreview.

This Boxing Day is, of course, different from previous years.

“Once you get your gift card, you’re like, ‘I want to spend it,’” said Avril Galvin of Mounds View. “We usually do like a small family gathering anyways, so I mean it’s just a lot of staying inside, and with school also being inside, it’s all at home."

Industry websites like ShopperTrak call this the third busiest retail day of the year, after Black Friday in November and the final Saturday before Christmas.

“What we see is a flood of people coming in to use gift cards they got as gifts,” said Sarah Fossen, Rosedale Center’s director of marketing and experience. “Maybe buy something they didn’t get.”

All this in the context of a pandemic. Rosedale Center, like other malls in the metro, requires masks, encourages safe-distancing measures and has no-touch areas — a kind of shopping "new normal."

“I don’t know, this year’s so crazy,” said Laye Keita of Oakdale. “I forgot about Christmas.”

The National Retail Federation is predicting that nationwide holiday sales will reach $755 billion. That includes Boxing Day, much more recognized in England and Canada than in the U.S.

What’s the deal with Boxing Day, anyway?

It turns out it originated in Europe during the Middle Ages. Instead of shopping bags, boxes of money or goods were given to tradespeople or servants the day after Christmas.

Fast-forward to the retail world today, grappling with the pandemic, and the rise of the gift card.

“It’s easier to online shop with them as well, so you don’t have to risk it if you don’t want to,” Galvin says.

Coupled with supply chain delays, stores are hoping shoppers are trying more brick and mortar.

“We definitely saw people who weren’t getting online orders on time,” Fossen said. “Or maybe it arrived and it was in the wrong size or the wrong product.”

Rosedale stores are also taking COVID-19 precautions that include policies about trying on clothes.

"Some stores are steaming everything after it’s tried on,” Fossen notes. “Some don’t have dressing rooms. If things are returned, they also go through the cleaning process."

For Sanchez, shopping on Boxing Day is part of this pandemic year, but it’s also a family tradition.

“I hear that comes from Canada,” she said. “Always getting gift cards, we always went the next day shopping.”

Nodding at her companion, she adds, “I told him the story as we went into the mall. This is more normal for me.”