Retailers, malls expand hours
Stores hope to draw last-minute shoppers over holiday weekend
If you’ve been putting off your holiday shopping to the last minute and are feeling the crunch, you’re in luck. A slew of local shopping centers and retail stores are extending their hours on what some expect will be among the biggest shopping weekends of the season.
With Christmas on a Monday, giving consumers an extra weekend to complete holiday shopping, retailers are expecting to be busy.
“Even though many consumers got a head start with holiday shopping early in the season, millions more are leaving their gift buying to the last minute and beyond,” said Matthew Shay, president and CEO of the National Retail Federation, in a statement. “Stores will be packed the next few days as consumers rush to complete their shopping, and anybody ordering online at this point should probably choose in-store pickup as their delivery option.”
A survey from the NRF found that 53 percent of consumers — about 126 million people — plan to shop this weekend on what it calls “Super Saturday,” the last Saturday before Christmas.
According to that survey, about 55 percent of respondents expected to be done purchasing gifts by Dec. 20, with 6 percent saying they would still be shopping on Christmas Eve and 5 percent saying their final gifts won’t be bought until after Christmas.
A couple large retailers are trying to make the most of that lastminute shopping crunch.
Department store chain Kohl’s is in the middle of a shopping marathon, having opened at 7 a.m. on Thursday and staying open around the clock through 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Toys R Us, similarly, opened at 6 a.m. local time and will remain open through 9 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Bay Area malls have also made plans to extend their hours to accommodate procrastinators and cash in on the end-of-season rush.
The Sunvalley Shopping Center in Concord will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, a couple hours beyond its normal 10 a.m. to 9 p.m. window. On Christmas Eve, it will open early at 8 a.m. but close early at 6 p.m., and the day after Christmas it will open at 9 a.m. and close at 10 p.m.
The Stoneridge Shopping Center in Pleasanton will be open from 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. Saturday and 7 a.m. to 6 p.m. Christmas Eve, and the Westfield Valley Fair mall in Santa Clara extended its hours to open from 8 a.m. to 10 p.m. Saturday and 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Christmas Eve.
Brick-and-mortar stores and shopping centers are looking to benefit from last-minute buying, considering that online shopping has made a big impact on holiday sales in recent years. Many shoppers will want to pick up gifts in person this weekend without time to wait for packages to be shipped.
“After a strong Black Friday and Cyber Monday, the spending trend looks to continue all the way up until Christmas Day,” said ICSC President and CEO Tom McGee in a news release. “What this year’s Super Saturday weekend will show is the importance of physical retail in today’s evolving marketplace. This holiday shopping season demonstrated incredibly strong performance from shopping centers and malls, ending 2017 on a high note.”
Still, according to the NRF, last-minute shoppers also will be buying online. Its Dec. 12 survey found that 51 percent of lastminute shoppers planned to purchase their gifts online, 41 percent at department stores, 26 percent at discount stores, 21 percent at clothing or accessories stores, 18 percent at electronics stores, 14 percent at locally owned or small businesses and 14 percent at grocery stores or supermarkets.
“Similar to what we saw over Thanksgiving weekend, consumers are leveraging their smartphones to guide them on their final purchases for the holidays,” said Phil Rist, executive vice president of strategy at research firm Prosper Insights & Analytics, which conducted the study with the NRF. “Retailers this year have needed to offer great deals online and encourage young people making purchases through their smartphones to take advantage of offerings such as buy online and pick up in store.”
Contact Annie Sciacca at 925-943-8073.