At CVS, there were buy-two-get-one free deals on bath-Links of London Sale -body gift sets and discounts on a 7-inch LCD TV and DVD player combo.Ron and Lisa Johnson of Indianapolis came to Circle Center Mall Thursday morning just to buy boots for their 20-year-old daughter, Kaitlyn Shirar. Nearly four hours later, they sat on a bench with a pile of bags from Nine West, H&M and Forever 21."We haven't found anything that wasn't on sale," Lisa said.Retailers say shoppers mostly had stuck to a big lesson taught by the recession: using cash, not credit. Toward the end of the season, they pulled out the plastic a little more often, but that's normal. Overall, analysts considered the increased spending a sign more consumers paid down debt and had cash to spend.Besides sales, retailers were finding other ways to accommodate procrastinators.Many stores, including Best Buy Co., let shoppers order online and then pick up the merchandise at the store. Best Buy's deadline to order on its website was 3 p.m. Christmas Eve, and most stores closed at 6 p.m.Links of London Bracelets Adoniz, the store manager at Best Buy's store in Union Square in Manhattan, said that as of midday Thursday, 16 people were in line to pick up items ordered on its website.7-Eleven convenience stores, always handy in a pinch, were open all day on Christmas and were expanding their gift-worthy offerings by stocking a broader selection of wines, hand-held games and stuffed animals.Toys R Us planned to keep its doors open until 10 p.m. Friday, but was taking a different tack from the discounters by raising prices on some popular toys to take advantage of shoppers' desperation. It bumped up the prices of the Leapster Explorer hand-held learning device by $20 and the Nerf Stampede Blaster by $5, said Gerrick Johnson, a toy analyst at BMO Capital Markets."Retailers Links of London Dress Charm realizing that rather than give these toys away, they can actually make a profit on them," Johnson said.If all else failed, shoppers could fall back on gift cards. Spending on the plastic vouchers is expected to reach nearly $25 billion this holiday season, 5 percent more than last year, according to the National Retail Federation. Michelle Jose, marketing manager for White Marsh Mall in White Marsh, Md., said that more than half of the mall's gift card sales for the entire year are made in the last three days before Christmas and she expected "strong sales to finish up the holiday."Ian McCarty, 26, who lives in Atlanta and works for Emory Healthcare, found good deals at Lenox Square Mall on Thursday, but had trouble finding the right sizes. He picked up a gift card at the Gap and was on his way to Talbot's to pick another one up for his mother.Named for founder Sam Born, a Russian immigrant, the 87-year-old company manufactures all the Links of London Duck Charm except one -- the 85-pound fiberglass Peeps chick that will drop this New Year's Eve -- with a fireworks display, of course. While ringing in the new year on a balmy tropical island has its obvious advantages, you also can choose between countdowns that include a giant conch shell, a saucy pirate wench sliding down a ship's mast and a drag queen named Sushi who drops inside a giant red high heel.
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