Less than 48 hours to go: What stores are doing for you
He doesn't want to, but Bloomingdale resident Phil Thorn is going to Woodfield Mall today to start his holiday shopping.
After a financially tough year, which he thought might prevent him from buying any Christmas gifts at all, Thorn got an unexpected windfall a few days ago and decided to use it to buy a few presents for his family and his fiancee, Brittany Spialek, of Streamwood.
“I hate crowds,” he said, “but I'm going in with a mission. I have a list in my pocket.”
With Christmas less than 48 hours away — and convenient online shopping no longer an option for on-time delivery — procrastinating shoppers are being forced to face the crowds to get last-minute gifts.
To help them, recession-weary retailers are making it more convenient with deeper discounts and extended hours. National chains like Toys R Us, Walmart, JCPenney, Meijer and Macy's are staying open around the clock and until as late as 6 or 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve.
Learning Express stores, which sell toys for ages 0-12, go a step further. They'll gift-wrap your phone order and then run it out to the car for you, up until the stores close at 4 p.m. Christmas Eve. You don't even have to find a parking space.
“If we had a physical drive-through we'd be doing it that way,” said Steve Zdunek, owner of the Naperville Learning Express store. “We are trying to give the customer what they want.”
While shoppers remain price-conscious and have been snatching up tremendous sales since Black Friday, convenience often trumps price when there's less than 48 hours to go.
Spialek joked that she could “do all of her shopping at Walgreens” because they're one of the only stores open on Christmas Day.
“You can always find good things there,” Spialek said, “or, there's always gift cards.”
Walgreens' convenience factor includes their 24-hour stores that even remain open on Christmas Day for everything from personal care gift sets to batteries, said company spokeswoman Tiffani Washington.
“We get more and more traffic the closer we get to Christmas Eve and Christmas Day,” Washington said.
So if you're among those last-minute shoppers, you'll have plenty of company, according to a National Retail Federation survey. The group said it's expecting more last-minute shoppers this year than last. As of the second week in December, the average person had completed 46.5 percent of their shopping, less than the 49.5 percent by the same time last year.
The weekend before Christmas is typically the busiest at stores and malls. The shopping season started with a so-called “hyperactive” Black Friday when sales soared 7 percent over the same period last year. Then a lull kicked in during early December, said Tom Compernolle, retail and distribution principal with Deloitte in Chicago.
“But last weekend made up for it, which had 3.4 percent sales that were higher than the prior week,” Compernolle said.
And what are those shoppers grabbing? Clothing ranked No. 1 in the Deloitte survey. Gift cards fell from No. 1 to No. 2 this year. Books and CDs/DVDs followed on the Deloitte survey.
And since Christmas Eve falls on a Saturday, shops could see an upswing in last-minute shoppers who have the day off and seek deeper discounts, said Anne Brouwer, retail analyst for McMillan/Doolittle LLP in Chicago.
“These last three days before Christmas will be the real test” on how sales go for the season, Brouwer said.