The streets of downtown Durango were hopping Saturday afternoon as shoppers came out in force.

A stroll down Main Avenue included lots of slipping and sliding, not to mention snowpile hopping, but that didn’t seem to deter them at all.

“We’re pretty weather-dependent, so the storm didn’t seem to harm our sales before Christmas or (Saturday),” said Ashley Gonnella, a co-owner of Pine Needle Mountaineering. “In fact, we’re selling lots of hats and gloves, so we’ll stock up on the hat order for sure.”

Are the snowy sidewalks and streets deterring shoppers?

“No, I think the snow’s making everyone happy, and it’s bringing a lot of people to town,” she said.

Contrary to conventional wisdom, most of the shoppers downtown weren’t locals exchanging well-meant but not-quite-right gifts or cashing in on their gift cards.

Danielle Chick, a co-owner of Urban Market, had a store full of people Saturday afternoon.

“I think we’ve redeemed one gift card,” she said. “It’s mostly just people shopping.”

Denise Cleaves, the owner of Eureka, a clothing and accessory store, was asking every customer where they were from, and most were visitors, she said.

“We’re going to switch out the Christmas music in about 20 minutes because now people are thinking New Year’s,” said Cleaves at about 12:30 p.m.

Business really began picking up for the galleries Saturday afternoon, said Becky Sparks, gallery manager at Sorrel Sky.

“When it was 11 degrees at 9 a.m., not a lot of people were out,” she said. “But we’ve been pretty steady, with a lot of out-of-towners who are coming to town to ride the Polar Express.”

Maria’s Bookshop was full of customers.

“It was quiet first off because it was so cold,” said bookseller Clint McKnight. “But as soon as the sun came out, the people came out.”

Like a number of retailers along the street, he was surprised at how snowpacked the sidewalks were early Saturday morning, because virtually everything except a few hotels and restaurants was closed.

“And I was surprised so many parking spots weren’t cleared,” he said. “Parking isn’t easy on the side streets.”

Maria’s was seeing several gift-card redemptions and a few exchanges, he said.

“Most people are still in a buying spirit,” he said. “It was a good buying season for us, the best I’ve seen in the eight years I’ve been here. We’re grateful for this community, a community that loves books, loves to get books and loves to give books.”

abutler@durangoherald.com