Bargain-hunters have flocked to the stores to root out the best deals in this year's post-Christmas sales.

According to retailers, the stores have been packed with shoppers since the stores opened with their sales on Saturday ? and the numbers are still strong this week.

"The sales are very strong this year," said George Grundmuller, head of the visitor retail division of the Chamber of Commerce.

The after-Christmas sales, which this year are seeing anything between 20 and 75 percent off, are traditionally a large part of retailers' season, and this year most retailers have been reporting higher-than-last year sales.

"Sales have been better this year ? better for both the retailers and the customer," said Mr. Grundmuller. "The sales are a time to clear out and make space for new products for the next season."

Peter Cooper, managing director of A. S. Cooper, confirmed that sales were doing well this year in his stores after a very successful December.

"We are doing fine, thank you very much," said Mr. Cooper. "It has been very busy since the sales started on Saturday."

But he said it was difficult to tell how much better they had done this sale season than last year as the figures had not yet been computed.

"We did have a good December in general, and it was up on last year," he said. "We probably have about the same amount of merchandise on sale as last year ? actually maybe a bit less as we sold more before Christmas this year."

Pierre Dutoya, general manager of the Calypso Group of stores, said that not only were pre-Christmas sales up on last year, but that the sales in his stores had been doing very well.

Mr. Dutoya also said that the volume of sales at their newest store, French Connection on Reid Street, had been "fantastic".

The store, which has both men and women's clothing departments and is housed in the old Yankee Store, opened the week before Christmas and appears to have been packed with young shoppers since it opened its doors.

"Sales have been fantastic," said Mr. Dutoya. "We have done in seven days what we targeted to do in a month."

Mr. Dutoya said that sales in all the stores, which include Calypso on Front Street and in Dockyard, MaxMara in Front Street and Benetton on Reid Street as well as a series of hotel shops, had done well this season.

"We are up for December this year compared to last," he said. "It has been an excellent month. We are not in the sales business as some other stores are ? our normal sales are doing well and the sales (after Christmas) have been going well as well."

Mr. Dutoya said that MaxMara, which opened 18 months ago, was also doing a roaring trade and was filling a gap in the market in Bermuda for plain well-made clothes.

But despite the success of French Connection and MaxMara, he would not say if he had any more plans to open any more stores in the future.

He said: "It is extremely costly to open a new shop in Bermuda. I will wait at least until 2005 ? I have got plenty of ideas but you can go too fast."