Shoppers are not coming in droves to buy gifts for the holidays, according to retailers.
(Jeff Chiu/Associated Press)
NEW YORK - Never mind all the pressure this season from the nation's stores to do holiday shopping early with such tactics as marathon shopping hours and other come-ons. Meghan Donovan is doing it her way.
The San Francisco resident starts her research in early November, poring over catalogs, checking out stores, and searching online. Then she waits, and doesn't pounce on anything unless the item is down at least 30 percent.
"I definitely do a lot of research and then narrow it down. . . . I would have spent more money if I shopped earlier," said Donovan, who started her holiday buying late Sunday night, when the crowds were thinner. She doesn't plan to finish until this Sunday.
With Christmas less than a week away, merchants are finding themselves in the same situation as in recent years: waiting for those last-minute shoppers. But based on anecdotal evidence, the ritual of shopping later is becoming more prominent as consumers - under increasing time pressure and armed with the Internet, gift cards, and other buying options - want to take more control of the shopping experience.
Exacerbating the problem this year is that Christmas falls on a Tuesday, giving consumers a full weekend to finish.
"What we see in broad terms is that people are less interested in being forced to do something by marketers and retailers and a lot more are interested in managing the shopping and consuming experience themselves," said J. Walker Smith, president of market research company Yankelovich Inc. "They want to be in charge. It's not that people don't want to shop. They just want to shop on their own terms."
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