Retailers start last sales blitz

It's beginning to look a lot like Black Friday all over again.

Stores from Macy's to CompUSA are opening at 6 a.m. and offering door-buster sales to make sure procrastinators get their shopping done before Christmas. Other chains such as Sears and Toys "R" Us are catering to night owls, staying open until 11 p.m. or midnight.

With three days left before Christmas, retailers expect today and tomorrow to be two of the biggest shopping days of the season -- in large part because four out of five holiday shoppers had not finished their gift buying as of Dec. 17, according to the International Council of Shopping Centers .

One store, if you happen to be heading to New York for the holidays, is going above and beyond others. The Macy's at Queens Center Mall in Elmhurst, N.Y., will be open around-the-clock until 6 p.m. on Sunday, Christmas Eve .

"The few days after Thanksgiving showed weak sales. More recent weekends have been stronger," said Madison Riley , a principal at retail consultancy Kurt Salmon Associates . "Sales this weekend will be particularly strong."

Dawn Combra , an ice cream store owner from Martha's Vineyard , was at a packed South Shore Plaza in Braintree yesterday. "I started shopping early, but I'm always finishing my shopping at the last minute. There are always things I forget, like stocking stuffers," she said.

Some chains are embracing procrastinators by offering extended hours this year. Toys "R" Us is open from 8 a.m. to midnight today and from 7 a.m. to midnight tomorrow. The new L.L. Bean store in Burlington is staying open to midnight today and tomorrow.

Area retailers are also trying to make it easier to shop. This year marked the launch of the "Back Bay Holly Trolley ," a shuttle that runs through some of that neighborhood's most popular shopping and dining destinations. It runs every 20 minutes from 11 a.m. to 7 p.m. Saturday and Sunday.

For those shoppers who want to avoid the crowds and long lines, more stores are allowing you to buy online and pick up the merchandise, if it's in stock, in their stores. Sears , Best Buy , and Circuit City all offer that option.

Best Buy is even letting customers purchase items online up until 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve for pickup in a store before its 5 p.m. closing.

"We listened to our customers and know they value the convenience," said Best Buy spokesperson Brian Lucas .

While last-minute shoppers may not have the biggest selection of gifts, they may find a lot of deals. On Monday, Toys "R" Us said it will ship out thousands of its most popular products to stores up until Christmas Eve, including the hard-to-find T.M.X. Elmo , Play Station 3, and Nintendo Wii . It is also offering a free $100 gift card with the purchase of an X box 360 . At Best Buy, all televisions are on sale, and people who buy three DVDs receive a $10 gift card. Meanwhile, Macy's door-buster sale, from 6 a.m. to noon tomorrow, include s 50 percent off Guess down jackets and $99 diamond circle pendants.

Susan Sampson , a professor at Simmons School of Management , said that for consumers, it sometimes pays to wait. "Those people that have waited to shop will be rewarded. The selection might not be there, but the deals will be."

Rose Sopko can be reached at rspoko@globe.com. Globe staff reporter Jenn Abelson contributed to this report.