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Last-Minute Gift Buying Boosts Retailers: Sales at big chains rise 3.9% last week from a year earlier. Volume this week also may be good. (Leslie Earnest, December 29, 2005, LA Times)

Procrastinators again gave retailers a last-minute present this holiday season, as sales in the week before Christmas rose 3.9% from a year earlier.

The International Council of Shopping Centers, reporting its tally of 69 chains nationwide, said Wednesday that sales volume and customer traffic accelerated in the seven days before the holiday.

With shoppers gravitating back to stores to return unwanted presents, snap up bargains and redeem gift cards, retailers could log another solid week, said Michael Niemira, the group's chief economist.