Armed with gift cards, Christmas cash and spare time, shoppers hit local retailers Wednesday and Thursday, giving stores the much-needed final push in sales for the year.

Carrollton Target store manager Steffyn Workman said his store did 82 percent more business on Wednesday than on the day after Christmas last year.

"That is an incredible jump," Workman said. "We're proud of that number, but it's like this every year."

The Christmas shopping season doesn't end just because Christmas Day passes.

Standing near the toy aisle at the Carrollton Walmart Thursday morning, one shopper told her friend that the crowd reminded her of the one she encountered on the Friday after Thanksgiving.

Stores often have even deeper discounts than they had the day after Thanksgiving, the so-called Black Friday, since inventories have to be cleared and transitions completed.

But shoppers weren't out just for the deals — the day after Christmas is the busiest day of the year for returns and exchanges. The National Retail Federation said that consumers were expected to return $62.7 billion worth of holiday merchandise on Wednesday.

"It's always the busiest time of year, even more busy than right after Thanksgiving," Workman said. "Because we've got a lot of people coming in, but we're also trying to transition things in the store from Christmas to the new year."

Workman said the store is now setting up special displays of organizational items, such as storage boxes and clothes hangers.

The store manager said the store would most likely be busy until a few days after the new year, when things will get back to "normal."

Gift cards are also an important part of the holiday shopping and gift-giving season now. Workman said more people are giving gift cards and certificates now because people like to choose what they get instead of having their gifts chosen for them.

"I receive a lot of gift cards and cash for Christmas," said shopper Ryan Davis, who went to Walmart Thursday to buy some Christmas decorations on clearance. "I don't always know what people want, so I just get them gift cards because they're easier to get, and people tend to like them."

A survey completed by RetailMeNot.com reports that more than a quarter of gift card recipients will use up half or less of the gift cards they received as presents.

Only about half of consumers said they use up all of the cards they receive.

"Consumers are leaving money on the table," said Trae Bodge, senior editor of the blog.

A lot of money on the table, in fact.

It was expected that more than $100 billion would be spent on gift cards in the U.S., with more than 20 percent of those gift cards going unredeemed or unused.

That's $20 billion that has been stuffed in sock drawers and lost in purses this year nationwide — which factors down to about $55 million every day that goes unused.

Companies such as CouponTrade, GiftCardGranny.com and Plastic Jungle have created a business in the secondary gift card market, allowing consumers to sell their unused gift cards that they won't be using.

These companies award up to 90 percent of the gift card's balance in cash, which many consider a good price since the customer doesn't plan on using the card at all.

More stores now offer gift cards to restaurants and other businesses near their cash registers, too.

Publix, Target, Walmart, Lowe's and Kroger, among others, are all local stores that have gift card displays.

Target's display has gift cards for more than a dozen restaurants and stores that can't even be found in Carroll County — places like The Cheesecake Factory and T.G.I. Friday's.

Davis was in the majority of the survey by RetailMeNot, which said 75 percent of regular shoppers will take advantage of year-end sales, with 31 percent saying they will hold out for last-minute bargains if they're looking to make a big purchase.

Less than a third of consumers in the poll said they would consider returning unwanted holiday gifts, with only about a quarter saying they had ever "regifted" presents.