Shoppers brave crowds for those last few purchases

CHESAPEAKE

If Hampton Roads shoppers felt frazzled on the last weekend before Christmas, they didn't show it Saturday.

"I'm finishing up today," said Claudia Sparks of Norfolk while looking at clock radios at the Target off Greenbrier Parkway. "I think I found everything that I wanted. I'm a procrastinator, so I shop at the end anyway."

Many consumers said they had ventured to stores only to pick up some last odds and ends, stocking stuffers, and had completed the rest of their shopping.

"This is it. I'm done," said Freddie Vance, a Virginia Beach resident carrying multiple shopping bags from Macy's, Victoria's Secret, New York & Co. and The Limited at Greenbrier Mall. The 38-year-old had finished most of his shopping online but wanted to buy some clothes for his wife, who would soon return to the work force.

A survey released Thursday by the International Council of Shopping Centers, an industry trade group that tracks sales in chain stores, found that only 50 percent of consumers had completed half or more of their shopping. Of the 1,005 households surveyed between Dec. 13 and 16, a majority said they waited because they knew they had a whole weekend before Christmas.

In Hampton Roads, though, several shoppers indicated Saturday that they had few purchases still to make.

"Most of it was done," Julie Gamboa, 40, said of her holiday shopping as she left Macy's with big bags in each hand. The Chesapeake resident bought just a few items: some stocking stuffers, a doll for her daughter, some little cars for her son and cast-iron rame-kins for family members. "And then I'm going to call it quits for the rest of the afternoon."

Historically, the last Saturday before Christmas has racked up the highest sales of any single day during the holiday shopping season. The Friday after Thanksgiving, considered the seasonal kickoff, often generates the most traffic but not always the most sales.

In recent years, though, the scales have tipped a bit toward that Friday in late November, spurred by ferocious price-cutting on hot electronics and other high-ticket products that compel consumers to line up in the wee hours before stores open.

ShopperTrak RCT Corp., a retail research firm that analyzes holiday shopping traffic, forecast last month that Nov. 23 would rank at the top of the list this year. Saturday would end up the second-busiest shopping day of 2007, ShopperTrak predicted.

With the rise of gift-card purchases, a greater and greater portion of holiday sales has shifted to the week after Christmas and into January. Most retailers account for a gift-card sale not when it's purchased but when it's redeemed - when they move merchandise in exchange for the card.

"The popularity of gift cards is yet another factor in this waiting game," according to the shopping center council's release this week. "Some 52 percent of respondents said the gift-card option allows them to delay their shopping without anxiety."

China Dillon said she'll buy several gift cards for her family, including six grandchildren. "I'm not really a shopper," said the 60-year-old, who lives in Suffolk.

Some who only started their shopping Saturday ran into some trouble completing their lists, which tempered some of their spending.

"I'm sorry I waited until the last minute, because I can't find anything, and I'm tired," said Wyomie Barclift, 42, of Elizabeth City, N.C.

She said she took time to think of good gifts for her nephews but couldn't find the right sizes.

"I'm getting ready to do the last thing you can do, which is buy gift cards," she said. "I try to do something personal."

Macy's at Greenbrier Mall showed some signs of late-season commotion. Finding an open space in the parking lot proved a challenge. In the men's department, sweater and shirt displays were in disarray.

Their arms laden with children's clothes, shoppers lined up four deep at one cash register. In the cosmetics area, the gift wrapper looked frazzled while folding red shiny paper and tying a white bow around a box of perfume.

"Too busy," she said, smiling at the young men waiting patiently.

With or without the expected frenzy, the Macy's staff had prepared with "last-minute conveniences," said Robin Katz, manager of the Greenbrier department store. "We have the extended hours, the wrappers. We have the last-minute gift-card outpost."

Target seemed about as busy as it would on any Saturday, bustling - but not bursting - with customers and carts filled with clothing and toiletries as much as electronics and toys. Friends and fellow Virginia Beach residents Loretta Steinwand and Dianne Brown said they were down to their stocking stuffers.

"I'm getting socks for my daughter," said Steinwand, 29.

Brown, 37, started her shopping as early as September and did some of it online, she said. "Then, I know I can get it." She already had bought the popular Nintendo Wii video game system, which has sold out at Best Buy.

Mike Dovel, general manager of the Best Buy store in the Greenbrier area, deemed the last Saturday and Sunday before Christmas the busiest weekend of the season, but he said the day after Thanksgiving usually qualifies as the biggest sales day for the retailer. "We're still seeing a lot of people who are buying that extra item."

Several shoppers Saturday said they had scaled back their spending this year, for various reasons. Whitney Flora, 29, of Virginia Beach said she cut her holiday budget by about 20 percent.

"I'm trying to save money to buy a house," she said.

Claudia Sparks, 38, a full-time student at Old Dominion University, has spent about $500 this Christmas - half the amount she did last year on her three daughters, ages 7, 11 and 16.

"I told them to pick three big items that they really want," she said, adding that she would throw in some extras if she saw other items she wanted.

"We're not spending a whole lot," said Ron Dillon, 60, China's husband. He blamed the higher cost of necessities for putting a dent in his budget: "Price of gas. Price of food."

Steinwand said she has tempered her holiday budget to match the lower-key approach of her family members. "I tried to spend less," she said. "Everybody tells me I get too much anyway."

Retailers' discounts helped Barclift spend less this year, she said. At New York & Co. at Greenbrier Mall, she found everything in the store marked half off and bought a coat for $37.

"I'm finding there's a lot better deals this year," she said. "If they don't have a sale or a coupon, I'm not going in the store."

Carolyn Shapiro, (757) 446-2270, carolyn.shapiro@pilotonline.com