Sentinel News reports:

Homes sales are doing well in Shelby county.

Some Shelby County merchants report having a satisfactory Christmas season, and some say they really did well on their after-Christmas sales on Monday.

“I don’t have the numbers available, but I know we did better than last year,” said Jason Shaw, assistant manager at Lowe’s.

“We have sold a lot of merchandise yesterday [Monday], and that sale will be going on for another week,” he said.

That falls in line with what national industry sources were seeing as a positive holiday season. Though final figures won’t be out for a couple of weeks, the National Retail Federation on Dec. 15th raised its seasonal expectation to show a 3.8 percent increase from 2010, which would mean shoppers would spend an estimated $461.9 billion.

Walmart was a national company reporting good sales, and that trend was true in Shelbyville, said David Woodcock, manager at the Shelbyville Walmart.

“We have done well, and we are very pleased,” he said. “Our closing week of the season sales were up and our after-Christmas clearance sales are also doing very well. All of our holiday merchandise is fifty-percent off right now, and next week, what’s left will go even lower. But it’s going fast.”

Wakefield Scarce Galleries also did well, said Patty Wilson, visual coordinator at the gallery.

“We did a little better than last year,” she said. “I think our antique products, sold the best. People are always looking for a bargain, especially a discount.”

Wilson the said gallery got a head start on the after-Christmas shopping sales.

“We started ours a couple of days before Christmas, with twenty to forty percent discounts throughout the gallery, and our gift shop, Yule shop and silver shop,” she said.

Wilson expressed appreciation to shoppers.

“We are so very pleased that so many people came out and shopped with us, and we just want to say thank you to the people of Shelbyville for shopping local,” she said. “We hope they keep it up; we really appreciate it.”

Shoppers also headed out to the smaller establishments that also reported having a good season overall.

Bob Windsor, general manager at Metzgers Country Store, said he believes sales this year, when totaled, ill at least equal last year’s and maybe even exceed it.

“We will not have our final tallies until next week, but we certainly have been very busy,” he said. “We have had a lot of items on sale almost throughout the month, and I understand a lot of people were doing that.”