On Tuesday many last-minute Christmas shoppers hit stores, hoping to get their hands on everything from gifts to dinner items.
“We are expecting a really busy day today, right from driving on to the property, the steady stream of shoppers coming through,” said Laura Poland, the Mayfair Mall’s general manager.
“We see over four million shoppers a year, 25 per cent of that or more will come to us at Christmas time, we are expecting a really busy day today, right from driving on to the property, the steady stream of shoppers coming through.”
Shoppers were lined up at 9:30 a.m. as stores opened, one of the most popular was Toys R Us.
“My husband bought a new present for our five-year-old and decided our three-year-old’s present was too lame by comparison, so we are upping the ante a little bit,” said one woman.
“It’s very last minute, so we are visiting from Calgary, we didn’t want to bring it on the plane so we thought we would just but it while we were here.,” said one couple.
“I was wrapping presents and just thought maybe one more-one more,” said one man.
It was no different at grocery stores. Parking lots were full and hot holiday items like ginger-ale and eggnog were flying off the shelves.
“I average about 500 people a day,” said Esquimalt Country Grocer’s front end manager Amanda Graham.
“It’s probably going to be double that, between everybody, the last-minute bread for the stuffing or some people have picked up a frozen turkey, all the little oranges and chocolates and goodies… all the last minute things you forget about.”
“I have coffee, I have dip, I have fruit cake and eggnog of course,” said one woman.
Christmas Day will be a very different sight, many stores will be closed. But big numbers are expected to return on Boxing Day.
Julian Kolsut
