Retailers had only one day to recover from the mad dash to pick up last-minute Christmas presents before they had to navigate the masses of returns and exchanges.

The day after Christmas is known for good deals on items left over from the holiday, but it’s also the first chance customers get to bring back presents that didn’t go over well, didn’t fit or just need to be exchanged.

At the Walmart on North Main Street, Rob Bateman and his daughter were waiting in the return line to exchange a comforter set he bought for her.

“I bought this one, and it was a size too small,” he said. “We want the same pattern, just a bigger size.”

Bateman said he doesn’t usually have to come out on the day after Christmas, and this was the only thing he had to return Monday.

“One mess-up isn’t too bad,” he said.

Another customer, Dawn Belch, was returning a router she picked up to give with the laptop she got for her son.

“It just wasn’t compatible,” she said. “It didn’t work.”

She said she was just going to get a refund and have her cable company install its own router in her home to ensure it would work.

Belch said she didn’t plan to go out the day after Christmas, but she wanted to get the return over and done with.

However, she said, she was pleasantly surprised by the lack of crowds around lunchtime when she stopped in.

“It isn’t too bad,” she said. “I’m glad it isn’t crowded.”

Belch wasn’t the only one surprised by the low crowds.

Frances Shelton, a zone supervisor at the Walmart, said she had been shocked by how few returns they had experienced by the afternoon.

“It’s actually been slow,” she said.

Shelton said the store set up an extra table at the customer service station to handle Christmas returns exclusively, which is something they do every year, but they didn’t have to use it.

“It’s a good sign,” she said.

Shelton said the main thing people bring back the day after Christmas is clothes, and it’s usually because they don’t fit.

However, one patron was bringing something back for a much different reason.

On Monday, Tavon Whitehead returned a shiny new red bicycle that one of her sons had gotten under the tree just 24 hours before.

“My child was being disobedient,” she said.

Whitehead said after her son was misbehaving yesterday, she decided to bring back the bike, which was his largest and main gift, to teach him a lesson.

“He got to keep shoes and clothes and Wii games he got because his brother also got those,” she said. “But he’ll have to earn this back.”

Melissa Jones also brought back her daughter’s bike, but she had a different problem.

“A piece broke off,” Jones said. “She didn’t even get to ride it.”

She said she brought it back and was headed to the back of the store to pick out another bike.

“We’re hoping to get the same one,” she said. “I didn’t want to do the return today, but I just wanted to get it done as soon as possible.”