Sun Sentinel Palm Beach Edition
Last-minute shoppers fight the clock, crowds
Betty Martin clutched her shopping bags, her walk was at a brisk pace, she was a woman with a mission trying to beat the clock.
With hours till Christmas left, she shopped Monday at Coral Square mall in Coral Springs for her husband — cologne and a phone — and clothes and shoes for three godchildren, ages 4, 6, and 11.
The private school principal said free moments to shop before now were few: “It’s a question of time.”
Still, she saw the bright side: “Sometimes you get the better deals, I think I did,” she said.
Martin, of Oakland Park, wasn’t alone braving long lines and bustling crowds.
The Washington D.C.based National Retail Federation estimated about 7 percent of holiday shoppers nationwide would still be shopping on Christmas Eve. That’s a slight uptick from last year’s estimate of less than 6 percent, said spokeswoman Ana SerafinSmith.
Some of that might have to do with the timing of the holiday falling on a weekday: “A lot of folks are off today … rather than taking time from a weekend,” she said Monday.
She expected millennials to be chief among the procrastinators.
“They love to shop at value stores, and that includes bargain hunting — some of that is still available today for those last minute shoppers,” Serafin-Smith said.
And the world’s largest retail trade association expected the shopping to continue in the week immediately following Christmas, with consumers shopping for post-holiday sales. Some would shop to use gift cards they receive, and still others to return or exchange unwanted gifts.
Ashley Distel, accompanied by her mother Angela Austin, both of Fort Lauderdale, shopped at the Coral Springs mall Monday, although she hadn’t expected to.
When she laid out gifts for her two stepchildren, ages 15 and 12, the night before, she decided her piles needed some “filling in.” So it was back to the mall to buy shoes, cologne, per-
“They love to shop at value stores, and that includes bargain hunting — some of that is still available today for those last minute shoppers.”
Ana Serafin-Smith, National Retail Federation
spokeswoman
fume, and a hoodie.
The stress of making sure the children are happy is what moms do, said Austin. “It’s the thrill of the hunt and making Christmas magic happen,” she said.
Aaron Lee, of Coral Springs, was last-minute by design. He wanted to treat his wife to a special perfume, and wanted it to be a surprise. But he fretted that she’d find her gift if he bought it too early, and he really wanted her holiday to be perfect.
“She would find it,” he said. “I’d put it in a place where I didn’t think she’d find it and she’d find it.”
He calmly strolled through the mall.
“I know what I want, I know where it is,” he said.
LaDana Cox, of Lauderhill, tried to shop Sunday, but decided to forgo the shopping because “traffic was so bad.” She tried again Monday, hoping that everyone else would be “home wrapping”
“I’m a last-minute person,” she said, as she stocked up on gifts.
But, “I like a deadline — you have to get it done.”
Others were a bit stressed.
Damian Tomlin, of Coral Springs, blamed his busy work schedule for the lastminute run to Old Navy for his wife, mother-in-law and three children ages 5, 12 and 13.
“I don’t like it, but I had to in this case,” he said of the deadline shopping. “I end up buying the first thing I see. There’s no time to think.”
Some shoppers vowed to do things differently next year.
Kaitlyn Dias, of Parkland, waited until Monday to shop for her grandma and an aunt because “I never know what to get.”
She settled on blouses for each of them but doesn’t want a repeat next holiday season.
“It’s stressful — there’s so many people in the mall,” she said. Next year “I’ll probably give them money. I’m kind of over it.”