After weeks of blowout discounts to lure holiday shoppers, retailers plan to amp up the sales siren with even deeper sales Friday.

J.C. Penney will open at 5:30 a.m., the earliest opening on the day after Christmas in the store's history, and offer twice as many "doorbuster" deals as last year for a total of 100. Gap is offering another 25 percent off all clearance items, while Banana Republic added another 20 percent off all sale prices.

While Dec. 26 traditionally is one of the busiest shopping days, whether shoppers will still be in a buying mood this year remains to be seen.

Another factor: gift card sales are projected to decline for the first time since the cards became popular this decade. The gift cards in previous years boosted post-Christmas sales as recipients headed to the malls to redeem the cards on discounted and regular-priced merchandise.

Karen MacDonald, a spokeswoman at Taubman Centers Inc., which operates 24 malls including Cherry Creek Shopping Center, said gift card sales have been tracking anywhere from single- digit to double-digit declines this season.

Gift cards "certainly drive business the week after Christmas," she said. "I think there were so many good deals out there that many people made that their gift of choice."

Consumers also have been wary of gift cards out of fears that retailers might go out of business or shutter swaths of stores soon after the New Year. Already this holiday season, Circuit City Stores and KB Toys filed for bankruptcy protection.

Pam Schenck, general manager for Park Meadows, said those concerns will make gift card recipients more likely to spend the entire amounts immediately rather than drop the card into a dresser drawer.

"The consumer has become a lot more gift-card-savvy about using them right away," she said.

Merchants desperate to pull in shoppers started deeply discounting holiday goods as soon as they hit stores starting in November. But except for a shopping binge on the day after Thanksgiving, Americans have remained tightfisted. When they do buy, they are looking for small-ticket, practical gifts.

That trend has prompted analysts to continue slashing their holiday estimates. Michael P. Niemira, chief economist at the International Council of Shopping Centers, now expects that sales at established stores for November and December will fall 1.5 percent to 2 percent - making it the weakest holiday season since at least 1969, when the index began.

Excluding Wal-Mart, one of the few bright spots in retailing, same-store sales could be down as much as 7 percent for the holiday period.

Same-store sales are sales at stores opened at least a year and are considered a key indicator of a retailer's health.

davisj@RockyMountainNews.com or 303-954-2514. The Associated Press contributed to this report.

After-Christmas shopping

Sites to check out for after-the-holiday deals:

* Gotta Deal gottadeal.com

* DealsPlus dealspl.us/After-Christ mas-Sale_101348

* Dealio dealio.com

Store opening hours the day after Christmas:

* 5:30 a.m. J.C. Penney

* 6 a.m. Macy's Wal-Mart Kohl's

* 7 a.m. Target Sears

* 8 a.m. Best Buy Cherry Creek FlatIron Crossing Park Meadows Southwest Plaza

* 9 a.m. Colorado Mills Dillards

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