The snowstorm that blanketed the East Coast, closing malls and snowing in shoppers, spelled trouble for retailers, but elsewhere in the country stores saw a strong turnout on the last weekend before Christmas.

Eager to win business from snowed-in Easterners, retail Web sites including Macy’s and J.C. Penney offered free express shipping Sunday. Traffic to retail Web sites spiked all weekend. Elsewhere in the country, crowds looking for discounts found some, but far less than the 60 percent to 70 percent off sales they wanted.

Retailers head into the home stretch hoping the storm leaves pent-up demand that will give them one last gift.

A snowstorm the Saturday before Christmas, often the busiest shopping day of the year, is about as bad as it gets for retailers, said Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry analyst at market researcher NPD Group. But there’s still time and consumers are ready when they dig out of the storm.