"Things have been great," Deborah Green, general manager of Polo Park Shopping Centre, said on Wednesday.

"We're seen lots of shopping bags. The last two Saturdays have been very busy at the mall. It's shaping up to be a good season."

Sales from long-term stores at Polo Park were up six per cent in October, compared with the same month the previous year, Green said.

Over at Garden City Shopping Centre, same-store sales were up seven per cent last month over the previous October, said the mall's general manager, Frances Tester.

"I haven't seen any down trend in the traffic yet (this month), and I haven't heard any complaints from any of the tenants either."

Headlines screaming of big impending layoffs in the United States and eastern Canada don't appear to have caused Winnipeggers to keep their wallets shut just yet, and retailers are hopeful that trend continues through to the new year at least.

After that, it's anybody's guess what will happen, they say.

"We watch the news... and it's got to hit us one way or another," said Cheryl Mazur, manager of the St. Vital Centre.

But she's betting consumers won't ease up on the spending throttle until next year.

"We haven't seen anything slow down. Traffic has been a little bit less, but the sales (total dollars) have been up a bit.

November and December, I think, will still be strong months," Mazur said.

Counteracting some of the economic gloom is the fact that fewer Manitobans appear to be travelling south of the border to shop this season, she said, because of the drop in the value of the loonie compared to the U.S. dollar. "They're doing more of the shopping here; they're supporting Canada right now."

Many retailers haven't waited for late December to offer big discounts to lure shoppers to their stores.

There are deals to be had, as Andi Green, 23, and Rick Desrosiers, 29, found out as they kicked off their Christmas shopping Wednesday at the Portage Place mall.

"Everything is half price, or buy one, get one free," Green said.

"Deals. It's all about deals," Desrosiers added.

While Green is worried about the economy and the rising cost of housing, she hopes to spend even more this Christmas than last year because the deals are just too good to pass up.

"Go big, or go home, right?" she added with a laugh.

The Urban Planet clothing store in Portage Place is one of the retailers offering price discounts of up to 70 per cent to get shoppers into the store. So far, it's working.

"The Christmas shopping season has definitely begun," the store's manager said. "We're doing very well."

Mandy, who wouldn't give her last name, said the Christmas season seemed to kick off a little earlier this year -- around the first week in November -- and so far her store's sales are running only slightly behind last year's pace. She expects that trend to continue.

larry.kusch@freepress.mb.ca

-- With files from Murray McNeill