Retailers get a late Christmas present

Procrastinators hunting for last-minute gifts packed area malls and stores yesterday, a Christmas present for retailers whose sales have been modest thus far this shopping season.

With yesterday being a federal holiday and many offices closed, consumers had extra incentive to procrastinate in addition to the usual end-of-season discounts.

And the steady stream of business yesterday may be the break retailers needed.

“This could be one of the busiest Christmas Eves we’ve ever had,” said Scott Krugman, a spokesman for the National Retail Federation (NRF), an industry trade group.

While weather in the Washington area was not a factor yesterday, it likely will hurt the bottom line for retailers in the Midwest, which was blasted by a winter storm Thursday.

The NRF projects holiday sales will increase 4.5 percent this year to $219.9 billion.

As of last Sunday, the average consumer had completed nearly 82 percent of holiday shopping. However, 12 million consumers had not even started shopping, according to the NRF.

Many of them flocked to Westfield Shoppingtown Montgomery in Bethesda yesterday. The parking lots were filled with motorists — some cheery and others not so jolly — stalking shoppers heading to their cars in scarce spaces.

Inside, the mall was bustling with people, too. Some shoppers were eyeing the popular IPods at the Apple Store. In the 15-person line at KB Toys, customers were snapping up everything from dolls and games to remote-control cars.

Jewell Thornton, said she shops on Christmas Eve because she’s a procrastinator, but it also helps put her in the holiday spirit.

With numerous bags at her feet, she was waiting to meet friends so she could unload the gifts in the car and start again with free hands. They had been at the mall since around 9 a.m.

“Coming early is very important,” she said. “It’s the method to my last-minute shopping.”

The line at the mall’s gift-wrapping station was long, filled mostly with men.

Dan Pollock had about a dozen gifts to be wrapped although he had done all of his shopping earlier in the month. Each year, he brings his gifts back to the mall to be wrapped because the proceeds go to the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation International.

“I’m a last-minute wrapper,” the Germantown resident said. “I’m not frantically running around shopping.”

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