Alicia Kaufman, left, and Tyler Conway, right, both of Lawrence, carry shopping bags with gifts during an afternoon of shopping in downtown Lawrence, Saturday, Dec. 18, 2010. Considered one of the busiest shopping days of the holiday season, many shoppers in Lawrence had to plan their shopping time either before or after the home KU men's basketball game at 11 a.m. Saturday.

Peter Ross, a Kansas University graduate, left, and Ashley Byrd, a fifth-year KU pharmacy student, both from Memphis, shop at Waxman Candles Inc. for Christmas gifts Saturday.

The experts and the statistics say consumers are spending a little more freely this holiday season compared with 2009.

But shoppers and retailers in downtown Lawrence gave mixed responses for whether that’s the case locally.

“I think they’re up,” said Sue Shea, manager of Phoenix Gallery, 919 Mass., when asked about sales. As she surveyed her store Friday afternoon, a handful of shoppers milled about. “I think it’s going really good.”

Aside from dollars and cents, Shea said, she’s seen a change in customer attitude.

“The mood is better,” she said.

A block over, Cinda Garrison, owner of Prairie Patches, 821 Mass., has observed the opposite.

“Tight,” she said of holiday sales.

Garrison, who has run the store in Lawrence for more than three decades, said her many years in the business gives her a pretty good pulse of local shopping. The past five or six years the pattern has been downhill, regardless of what the economists say.

“You just kind of have to ride the wave,” she said.

The National Retail Federation estimates that November and December sales are up 3.3 percent from 2009. That would put holiday sales close to the holiday 2007 levels. Per-shopper spending averages this year are also up $7 to $688 this year, compared with $681 last year.

“Definitely over,” said Tonganoxie resident Donna Goodwin when asked how she compared with the average shopper. Goodwin was out last-minute shopping in downtown Lawrence with her daughter, Amanda Rush of Topeka.

Goodwin and Rush were among throngs of shoppers hitting downtown Saturday morning, on the last weekend before Christmas.

Goodwin echoed the opinion of several other shoppers surveyed Saturday. Some spent a little more; some a little less. But there didn’t appear to be strong feelings either way.

“I’m probably tighter,” said Goodwin, but admitted that she wasn’t watching the pennies too closely. “I like to give.”