Christmas shopping Saturday morning....empty stores, empty streets.........

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Christmas shopping Saturday morning....empty stores, empty streets.........

Posted: 12/21/2009 5:39:58 AM EDT

Main shopping area near me (Route 2 in Warwick, for the locals). WIfe and I leve the house at 620ish, hit Dunkin for a wake up cup, start shopping.

I was surprised that even as we left for home at about 930 the road was still largely empty. Usually it's a madhouse, even on, let's say, a Wednesday night in August it's busy. Saturday it was not BUSY. The Saturday before Christmas is usually insane. Saturday night, of course, was a blizzard and the area was pretty well empty, too (had to pass by there going to a wake).

I am very curious to see what the numbers are for store sales for the season....I'm not too optimistic.

Posted: 12/21/2009 5:44:18 AM EDT

[#1]

Our local China-Mart is usually swamped every day this time of year. Parking is typically very difficult.

This year, you can park wherever you want to, as the lot is never more than 1/3 full. Sometimes it's much less than that.

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:04:11 AM EDT

[#2]

I went to the mall Sunday afternoon for some last minute stuff. Looked liked an average weekday inside. The only place that was busy was Bath and Body everything else was empty .But hey as mentioned above i got a good parking spot.

This area didn't even get hit that hard with layoffs.

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:20:19 AM EDT

[#3]

The TJ Maxx a friend of mine works at had record sales Saturday, over $60K.

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:23:39 AM EDT

[#4]

Grocery store parking lot was the fullest I've ever seen it last night about 5pm.

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:23:46 AM EDT

[#5]

Apparently Tucson didn't get the memo. Stores were packed from Friday-Sunday.

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:27:11 AM EDT

[#6]

I was able to do all of my Christmas shopping on Sunday morning, hitting 5 seperate stores in 2 hours. I'm sure alot of people were sleeping in, but it was like a ghost town out there. Not what I expected the last weekend shopping day before Christmas.

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:27:44 AM EDT

[#7]

You should go check out The Rhode Island Mall. I think there are maybe three stores still open in there. The place looks abandoned.

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:34:51 AM EDT

[#8]

Local area strip Mall and WalMart were packed . Shopping isles looked like buzzards flocking to a dead steer
Shelves in electronics were almost barren . Slow must be a local thing

Posted: 12/21/2009 6:49:28 AM EDT

[#9]

My fiancee and I went shopping on Sunday to finish up our Christmas list. We were going to go Saturday but there was the blizzard. The lady at the local Irish store (two gifts for family members, box of Irish Soda Bread mix because my bread making attempts have been abject failures lately for some reason) said on Saturday she managed to stay open until 1530 when she packed it in. She said she actually had a fair number of people come in, mostly people from the town who walked or people trapped in the hotel across the street. On sunday there were a good amount of people walking around the stores despite the fact the roads were still shit.

On Saturday night there were a good number of people in the bar we went to, but not many people in the restaurant.

Posted: 12/21/2009 7:11:28 AM EDT

[#10]

Walmart here on Friday & Saturday looked like black friday. Not sure if people were Christmas shopping or stocking up food for the storm that never came

Posted: 12/21/2009 4:46:54 PM EDT

[#11]

Quoted:
Apparently Tucson didn't get the memo. Stores were packed from Friday-Sunday.

Yeah, but they didn't get two feet of snow, either.

Posted: 12/21/2009 4:52:28 PM EDT

[#12]

Quoted:

Quoted:
Apparently Tucson didn't get the memo. Stores were packed from Friday-Sunday.

Yeah, but they didn't get two feet of snow, either.

We didn't quite get 2 feet in Richmond, but I went out this afternoon and Downtown Short Pump was pretty crazy for a weekday.

Posted: 12/21/2009 4:55:03 PM EDT

[#13]

I made the mistake of going to the Opry Mills mall in Nashville Saturday to get my dad something at Bass Pro - took me a half of an hour just to get off the highway and into the parking lot. The place was packed.

Posted: 12/21/2009 4:56:51 PM EDT

[#14]

I couldn't get near the mall today, the cars were piled up for a mile.

Posted: 12/21/2009 5:00:38 PM EDT

[#15]

No problems here. I got stuck in Mall traffic for about an hour and a half over the weekend, busy as hell, and the lots were packed.

Sure helps being in a sales-tax-free state that's right on the border of a state that bleeds their subjects of every spare nickle they've got, then jacks up their own sales-tax to try to fix their spending problems.

Posted: 12/21/2009 5:09:41 PM EDT

[#16]

I have been out the last few evenings, the mall is so full, there are literally no spaces available.People just driving around aimlessly waiting for a spot to open up. WalMart, Meiyer, Target, Best Buy, strip malls and everywhere else are packed averytime I drive by. I have been wondering what will happen when people really quit spending money like the media tells me they are now. From what I have seen this season, if a store can't make it with the way the economy is now (at least around here in booming Kokomo

), then they have extremely greedy expectations and pretty much deserve to fail because of it.

Posted: 12/21/2009 5:18:50 PM EDT

[#17]

I hate shopping at this time. The girlfriend just had to go to one specific store last night. Rather than trying to get into the Century City Mall, I circled the area and picked her up on the curb. Lots of people out shopping Not so many on Saturday morning though.

Posted: 12/21/2009 5:40:05 PM EDT

[#18]

My wife and I took my son to the Burnsville Center here in Minnesota late Friday afternoon. The mall was busy. Parking was packed. Given the density of malls in the Twin Cities it seems people are out shopping, though I have no way to know if they are spending. Spending doesn't really matter, a nation's wealth comes from producution, not consumption....

Posted: 12/21/2009 5:47:07 PM EDT

[#19]

saturday near my house was a horror show. shoppers all over the place, drivers were insane and almost killed me 4 times while I was driving my invisible full size conversion van.

shops were crowded and money was flowing

[ARCHIVED THREAD] - Christmas shopping Saturday morning....empty stores, empty streets.........

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