ROANOKE, Va. – Well, if you haven’t finished Christmas shopping yet, you’re not alone! Crowds swarmed the stores the Saturday before Christmas.
Many people were out and about Saturday grabbing those last-minute items before the holiday.
From full parking lots to long lines in stores, the Saturday right before Christmas is a packed day for shoppers.
“Yeah, it was very hectic, it was all blocked in, there were cars everywhere, people trying to turn and swerving. It was a lot coming in here,” Analese Wingfield and Alden Wynn, last-minute shoppers said.
The National Retail Federation estimates nearly 142 million shoppers will shop at stores or online on Saturday. Most people say they are just in need of some finishing touches.
“Definitely little details, I do a lot of my shopping online but there were things that I didn’t order in time, and I was like please God, let Target have it,” Rachel Collins, Last-Minute Shoppers said.
One last-minute shopper said if lots of people stress you out, stay away from the stores.
“We were around the house, anyway, just needing to get out of the house and do some stuff. So, it kind of gave us something to do but if you have shopper anxiety it’s definitely something you should try to avoid,” Casey McPherson, last-minute shopper said.
But if you decide to test your luck finishing up your Christmas shopping, prepare for long checkout lines.
“It was awful the regular check-out lines were so backed up, I was like I’ll go to self-checkout I’ll beat it, but that was wrapped around the little entry area, and I was like this is crazy,” Collins said.
With Christmas Eve falling on a Sunday this year, shoppers can take advantage of a weekend to close out their Christmas shopping before stores close for the holidays.