The holiday shopping season started last weekend with unusually warm weather, and Ames stores have noticed a difference in sales because of it.

Ryan Meyers, assistant manager of Target, 620 Lincoln Way, said sometimes the warm weather can hurt sales of holiday items, but this year at Target, sales were up for the first shopping days of the holiday season.

“We had an increase in the sale of shovels and holiday items,” Meyers said. “It’s amazing — the icicle lights are so popular this year, we can’t keep them on the shelf.”

Meyers said Target ran out of outdoor lights and sales have doubled in that department. The warm weather has people putting up more decorations than in the normally cold weather experienced this time of year, he said.

Paul Scharftenkanp, manager of JCPenney in North Grand Mall, said the weather has influenced what items are selling but has not had an effect on overall sales.

“People are not interested in sweaters, coats, gloves and other outer winter wear,” Scharftenkanp said. “The two big days after Thanksgiving were identical of last year’s sales.”

Shelly Goecke, marketing manager of North Grand Mall, said mall sales for the season have started out on a good foot.

Goecke said the holiday shopping season begins on the weekend after Thanksgiving and continues right up to Dec. 24.

“There is a total of 305 hours to shop at the mall between Nov. 27 and Dec. 24,” Goecke said.

All store managers said the weekend after Thanksgiving is a major shopping weekend for stores.

Scharftenkanp said the big sales on that weekend get the ball rolling and kick off the holiday shopping season.

“Sales were tremendous and up from last year,” Meyers said.

“The special sales get the people in the door and in the mood for the holiday season,” he said.

He said the goal is to get the customers to buy more than they plan on purchasing.

Meyers said there is a steady incline throughout the month-long shopping season in the amount of customers in the store, with the busiest days on the weekends.

“Because Christmas is on a Friday this year, the weekend before is predicted to be the busiest shopping days of the entire year,” Meyers said.

Goecke said the last 10 days before Christmas are usually the busiest for the mall.

“Basically, it gets nuts,” Meyers said.

To deal with the rapid increase in shoppers, many stores hire temporary help and extend the store hours, Scharftenkanp said.

Meyers said Target starts looking for help at the beginning of November. “We usually double our crew,” he said.

“The mall extends the weekend hours, by either opening earlier or staying open later,” Goecke said. Also, many department stores may extend their hours even more than the whole mall.

“If you count all the stores’ employees, we generally have 750 to 800 employees,” she said. “During the holiday season, the amount of employees grows to about 1,000.”

Goecke said some of the extra employees are for the information booth and maintenance crew for the mall.

Meyers said another factor that may affect the holiday shopping season in the future is Internet shopping.

“Consumers are beginning to look at the Internet for shopping,” Meyers said.

He said the Internet is currently having a very small effect on sales and really has had no impact.

“People really want something right now, and they still like to do the shopping in an actual store,” Meyers said.

Goecke said the Internet has potential for both consumers and sellers and could enhance revenues for stores.

“Consumers can use the Internet for information about a certain product and then come down to the store to physically buy it,” she said.