By JESSE MAJOR

jmajor@messengernews.net

With the surge of returns that come the days after Christmas, local stores are trying to streamline the process.

One way is by encouraging customers to get gift receipts with their purchases.

JCPenney starts handing out the gift receipts as early as October, said Rachael Cook, store leader for JCPenney in Fort Dodge.

“Unlike myself, some people start shopping early,” she said. “We suggest and recommend them for every customer.”

The reason is that it makes things easier when people need to return or exchange an item.

“It makes things a lot more simple,” she said.

Gift receipts have all the information needed to make a return or exchange, but they don’t include the price.

“If you wanted to give a receipt to whomever who were giving a gift to, you don’t want them to know how much you spent,” Cook said. “It’s kind of a secret code on there that gives us all the information we need to process a return.”

She added that having a gift receipt or a normal receipt is important during a return if the customer wants the full value of what was paid.

“If they don’t have that, they get the lowest price in the last 45 days,” she said. “If they have it, they get the value that was paid for the item.”

At JCPenney, there is a time limit on returns though.

“Sixty days is what our policy states,” Cook said. “But that week after Christmas, we’re a little more lenient.”

This is because some customers do their Christmas shopping early.

Those who return items shouldn’t expect cash back at every store.

At JCPenney, they would get in-store credit for a return, with or without a gift receipt.

JCPenney is just one store in Fort Dodge encouraging gift receipts though. Bomgaars also recommends them.

“We prefer if you have a receipt,” said Anita Harris, store manager for Bomgaars in Fort Dodge. “It always makes it easier.”

Without a receipt, the item can be returned for the last sales price, she said.

But Bomgaars doesn’t deal with as many returns after Christmas as it used to, Harris said.

“Over the last few years, we’ve been pretty good about not having a lot of returns,” she said. “It’s mainly exchanges.”

To help that process, Bomgaars, and other stores, encourage customers to leave tags on whatever they buy.

“They don’t have to leave the price on, just the UPC tag,” Harris said. “That helps a lot.”

By keeping the tags on and having a receipt or gift receipt, the process goes much more smoothly.

“We just like to make it easy on the cashiers and easy on the customers,” she said. “We try to be good to the customers.”

Younkers has also seen a decrease in the number of returns each year.

“In the last couple of years, it’s been a lot more people shopping with gift cards and money they received,” said Michelle Dorage, store manager of Younkers in Fort Dodge.

Instead this year, she’s seen more people who knew what gifts their friends and family wanted.

“This year, a lot more people came in with lists or pictures of what people wanted,” she said. “Technology has helped people Christmas shop this year.”

But, Younkers will still get returns after Christmas, so Dorage had some advice.

“I would do it as quickly as possible because the selection will be better right after Christmas,” she said. “The longer they wait, the selection gets slimmer, unless they’re looking for spring merchandise.”

She also recommended leaving the tags on.

“It makes life a lot easier doing the return transactions,” she said. “They can cut the price off, but leave the UPC.”

This is so they can verify the item.

She also recommend that people staple gift receipts to the tags, so that they aren’t lost during the process of wrapping.

“This time of year, we pretty much print off a gift receipt for every transaction,” she said. “It makes life a lot easier for our customer and that’s our job.”

Target is also trying to make the returns easier.

“We will fully staff our service desk,” said Lorelei Feske, the guest service team leader at Target in Fort Dodge. “Usually it goes pretty quick.”

Though Target encourages gift receipts, Feske said receipts can be looked up with either debit cards or the Target REDcard.

Target also extends its return policy by 30 days between November and January, she said.