In the category of "Who is the heartier shopper?" it looks like the Northeast has the mid-Atlantic beat.

While a storm that dumped two feet of snow on our region last holiday season kept shoppers home and many stores closed, a similar storm that occured last weekend in New York and New Jersey didn't stop those zealous shoppers from scoring on the post-Christmas sales.

Nationally, retail sales during the last week of 2010 rose by 0.4 percent over the previous week, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers. When compared with the corresponding week in 2009, sales were up by 3.6 percent.

"Although the beginning of the fiscal week’s sales were battered by a major Nor’easter along the East Coast, the warming trend by week’s end helped lift store traffic as well as helped to recover some lost post-Christmas sales earlier in the week,” said Michael Niemira, ICSC vice president of research and chief economist.

He added that "December will prove to be a relatively healthy sales month for retailers" and the ICSC expects this holiday season's sales to be the strongest since 2006.