Retailers Report Few Gift Returns, Exchanges : Holidays: They say shoppers’ caution and practicality are the reasons. More patrons turn out for post-Christmas sales.

Shoppers’ selections of practical gifts in a tight economy made for fewer returns and exchanges of Christmas presents than usual at Ventura County stores Thursday, retailers said.

“Everyone was cautious with their money and made sure the size and the price was right,” said Karen Forino, who went to The Esplanade shopping center in Oxnard simply to shop. “You have little to return when it’s sparse under your Christmas tree.”

Don Facciano, manager of the Sears, Roebuck & Co. store at The Esplanade, agreed that holiday shoppers had forsaken extravagance for practicality. “This was a year people bought for needs and not wants,” he said.

The weak economy prompted some patrons to seek cash back for the gifts returned on the first day after Christmas, merchants said.

“People are returning a lot of basic merchandise, like children’s clothing, that they normally could always use,” said Leslie Gonzales, who was managing the return counter Thursday at the J.C. Penney store in the Buenaventura Mall. “A lot of people just need the money.”

Far more people turned out to take advantage of after-Christmas sales than to bring back gifts that were the wrong size or not to their taste, retailers said.

Rave, a women’s store at Buenaventura Mall, handled only eight returned or exchanged items by midday, far fewer than expected, manager Chris Schlyper said. “Usually the returners are the first in the door, so I think we may have had the majority of them already.”

Meanwhile, sales were ringing up at a faster pace than on the three days preceding Christmas, she said. “I think a lot of people waited to buy today what they didn’t get for Christmas.”

Many shoppers searched racks and shelves for sales items for themselves now that they are no longer shopping for others.

“We shop for others before Christmas and do for ourselves afterward,” said Martha Baldwin, an Oxnard resident who shopped with two friends Thursday.

The emphasis on new spending pleased retailers, who collectively endured a mediocre holiday sales season. While overall transactions were up at many stores, merchants said their total sales revenues were down, an indication that consumers bought many more, but lower-priced, gifts.

Sales at Gary D. Forbes & Co., a jewelry store in The Esplanade, were off by more than 20% from last Christmas, co-owner Roger Gorman said. “People were far more conservative with their money than during any Christmas I’ve seen,” said Gorman, who has been in business 15 years.

Simi Valley resident Diane Howard took her grandson to The Oaks mall in Thousand Oaks to return a videotape and a sweater. In past years, Howard said, she has always returned to exchange at least five Christmas gifts.

Howard believes her friends and family shopped carefully this year, as she did. “I was buying more or less the essential things that I knew people need, so I bought more clothes . . . and fewer frivolous items,” she said.

Pat Hufschmidt went to The Oaks mall to shop, not to return anything. “I really planned a long time what I was going to get as opposed to whim shopping,” said Hufschmidt of Thousand Oaks. “I’ve never done that before.”

Thousand Oaks resident Nora Li, resting on a mall bench while her daughter chatted with friends, said her family had few gifts to return this year because “we didn’t buy as much.”

The Mervyn’s store in Simi Valley got fewer returns Thursday than in previous years, manager Kent Westbay said. “It’s mostly size returns that I’ve seen,” said Westbay, who opened to an 8 a.m. crowd of more than 200 shoppers.

Jennifer Lynch of Ventura returned a pair of shoes that were a gift from her mother at the J.C. Penney store in Ventura Thursday. She said she might use the proceeds to buy some compact discs, something impractical compared to most of her presents this year.

Peter Rydberg, an Oxnard youth minister and the father of six children, said his family did not have a single gift that needed to be returned this year. Rydberg escorted his children to a toy store at The Esplanade so they could make their own purchases with gift certificates and cash they received for Christmas.

“I think people were just smarter this year because money was tight,” Rydberg said. “They didn’t just go out and buy anything on the shelves.”

After finishing their toy shopping, Rydberg and his children went to see the movie “Hook” at a nearby theater. “A matinee,” Rydberg said. “To save some money.”

Times correspondent Maia Davis contributed to this story.

NATIONWIDE: Last-minute buying surge was not enough. A1