A woman walks down 34th Street carrying the fruits of …

AP FILE PHOTO, DEC. 26, 2011 | published: January 5, 2012

A woman walks down 34th Street carrying the fruits of her shopping expedition on the day after Christmas in New York. A flurry of post-Christmas bargain-shopping helped drive sales higher in the last week of December, according to a report Wednesday from a shopping-mall trade group.