East Bay shoppers find plenty of room at malls week before Christmas
CONCORD -- The last weekend before Christmas has traditionally been a busy time for last-minute gift buyers and Saturday was no exception. But the economy has changed and it looks like holiday shopping has changed along with it.
It may not be quite fair to call it "last-minute" buying. With a week to go before Christmas, shoppers at Sunvalley Shopping Center in Concord enjoyed a leisurely day of retail exploration.
As he sat outside the stores, Chris A. was counting the minutes until he could go home.
"I don't want to say I'm an impatient person so I'll bite the bullet before the sun turns dark in about two hours," he said. "I mean, you're either going to get what you need or want or whatever it is or you're going to have to roll the dice and order online and hope it comes in on time."
Inside the shopping center, there was plenty of pre-Christmas bustle. You've heard the term "retail therapy" and, for Tank Turner of Antioch, it really was. He's battling PTSD from an industrial accident and felt the social interaction helped him.
"Yeah, it does. It really does," Turner said. "It's therapeutic for me to come out among people -- be out with people -- because I don't like large crowds."
While it may have felt like a lot of people to Tank, others noticed a real difference in the reduced size of the Christmas crowds.
"It's been a while since I've been here around Christmas and I'm finding that it's just much more empty than before," said Jennifer Richardson from Oakley. "I was concerned about how crowded it would be but came up and saw plenty of parking spaces and thought, 'Oh, I guess everyone is kind of transitioning to online.'"
The switch from shopping to shipping has created a whole new layer of stress over whether packages will arrive on time. At the post office in Danville, customers lined up to send gifts off to loved ones. Danielle Chang discovered that the deadline for regular delivery had passed and only the pricier "Priority Mail" had guaranteed delivery by Christmas.
"Well, you know, they're good friends, good family so, if it gets there a day late, I think they'll be OK with that," Chang said. "But, you know, it depends on the cost difference."
For the record, the post office says the deadline for Christmas delivery via "Priority Mail" is Monday, Dec. 19. The deadline for "Priority Mail Express" is Friday, Dec. 23.
Supervisor Evelia Barragan said the week before Christmas may be the busiest shipping week for the post office but it's nothing they can't handle.
"You have time. C'mon! We're waiting for you! We're waiting to serve you!" she said with a laugh.
Remote shopping may be making things easier but, back at the mall, it's putting the squeeze on brick-and-mortar stores. Patricia Mejia from Antioch thought it's also taking something away from the Christmas spirit.
"Because I feel like it's not the same," she said. "You just go on the computer, you click a few buttons and you got what you needed to get but it's not the same experience of going and picking out and choosing what you want for your loved ones."
For many, the hustle and bustle of holiday shopping has been replaced by the click of a mouse. It's now easy to get ready for Christmas without ever leaving your house but where's the fun in that?
