Retailers hope that shoppers like Lesa Tafoya turned out in droves on Friday for after-Christmas sales.

Tafoya scrupulously avoided buying anything for herself while holiday shopping this year, but immediately put some of her Christmas gift money to use by snapping up a few small indulgences at J.C. Penney early morning sale.

"Because the economy is so bad, there are some really good deals in the stores today," said the Aurora mother of four.

Retailers nationwide are anxiously waiting to see whether the traditional Dec. 26 surge of deal hunters like Tafoya will provide salvation for a Christmas season that's shaping up to be the worst in four decades.

Early indications are grim: According to preliminary data from SpendingPulse - a division of MasterCard Advisors that tracks total sales paid for by credit card, checks and cash - retail sales fell between 5.5 percent and 8 percent during the holiday season compared with last year.

Sales of women's clothing dropped nearly 23 percent while men's clothing sales slipped more than 14 percent, according to SpendingPulse. Footwear sales fell 13.5 percent. Sales of electronics and appliances fell even more drastically, dropping almost 27 percent.

Online retailer Amazon.com provided a rare piece of good news Friday, saying it saw a 17 percent increase in orders on its busiest day. Amazon customers ordered more than 6.3 million items on Dec. 15, compared with roughly 5.4 million on its peak day last year, the company said.

Seattle-based Amazon did not provide dollar figures and wouldn't say whether the average value of orders had changed, and the jumps it reported Friday are in line with increases Amazon has seen since it started releasing the figures in 2002.

Holiday sales typically account for 30 percent to 50 percent of a retailer's annual total, but rising unemployment, home foreclosures, the stock market decline and other economic worries led many shoppers to slash their shopping budgets this year.

Strasburg resident Bertha Coburn trimmed 25 percent from her holiday spending this year, mostly by frequenting thrift stores. On Friday morning, she and her sister, Dean Peavler, were being extra picky as they engaged in their years-long tradition of hitting the after-Christmas sales together.

"We're only looking at the signs that say 75 percent off," Coburn said.

Some 40 shoppers were lined up outside the doors of the Northfield Stapleton J.C. Penney at 5:30 a.m. - the store's earliest ever post-Christmas opening - to take advantage of "doorbuster" deals that included 75 percent off all holiday decorations and 70 percent off all gold and sterling silver jewelry. By midmorning, the store's sales were tracking above normal for the day, said store manager Pat Miller.

"It's been very steady traffic, and significantly better than last year," she said.

Traffic at the rest of Northfield Stapleton was muted in the midmorning, as deals including 60 percent off everything at Old Navy, 60 percent off luggage and bedding at Macy's and apparel markdowns starting at $3.99 at New York & Co. failed to lure more than a handful of customers. Only a few carried shopping bags.

"It's been a slow start," said Miles Franklin, store manager at Brookstone, adding that he expected more shoppers to emerge in the afternoon.

Denver resident Gloria Stanley wasn't even browsing at all. After seeing that J.C. Penney was sold out of the $19.99 slow cooker - marked down from $49.99 - she wanted, Stanley left the store empty-handed.

"Money this year is real tight," she said.

Retailers and mall operators this year have also seen weaker gift card sales, which usually provide a bounce as shoppers return to the stores to redeem the plastic. Store gift cards are expected to generate $61 billion in sales in the fourth quarter, down from $70 billion in 2007, said Brian Riley, senior analyst at research firm The Tower Group.

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

Wrapping up the shopping season

Sales-tax-free shopping?

The country's largest retail trade association asked President-elect Barack Obama on Tuesday to add sales-tax-exempt shopping days to a coming economic stimulus package to revive consumer confidence and spur spending. The National Retail Federation called for three periods of sales tax-free shopping that would last 10 days each in March, July and October 2009. The trade group estimates it would save consumers about $20 billion, or $175 per family.

Retail sales fall

Despite a flurry of last-minute shoppers lured by the deep discounts, total retail sales, excluding automobiles, fell from the year-earlier period by 5.5 percent in November and 8 percent in December through Christmas Eve.

On a positive note

6.3 million orders, or a record pace of 72.9 items per second, logged by Amazon.com on Dec. 15. The company called the 2008 holiday shopping season "the best ever," despite a series of predictions that even online sales would weaken as U.S. consumers cut back amid the recession.

* Notable: Top-selling items included Samsung Electronics Co.'s televisions, Nintendo Co.'s Wii, Apple Inc.'s iPod touch, J.K. Rowling's The Tales of Beedle the Bard and Stephenie Meyer's Twilight books.

IPhone 3G at Wal-Mart

Wal-Mart confirmed Friday what everyone who follows Apple already knew: Wal-Mart will begin selling Apple's iPhone 3G at nearly 2,500 Wal-Mart stores starting Sunday - three days after Christmas. Wal-Mart will sell the red-hot mobile device for $197 for the 8GB model and $297 for the 16GB model, or $2 off its current price.

"This will go down as the one of the worst holiday sales seasons on record. Retailers went from 'Ho-ho' to 'Uh-oh' to 'Oh-no.' "

Mary Delk, a director in the retail practice at consulting firm Deloitte LLP

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