stores busy?

[Ohio Buckeye]

I was surprised last eve. and this eve. when shopping for a Christmas gift for my grandson
how the stores here are not at all busy for this time of year.  Cashiers were standing around
waiting for someone to ring up.  Is it like that in your area?

[Hawkeye]

It really depends on where I have gone (Store and location).  Some have been packed while others of that same store are empty.  A lot of people are doing their shopping on line now too which makes a big difference I'm sure.

[MattyBoy100]

This year, shoppers are avoiding the disappointment when goods failed to arrive in time for Xmas by doing their shopping this coming weekend on the internet.  Many companies are having to accept the harsh fact that their stores are being used as showrooms now particularly when they are offering discounted prices on their own websites.

Shoppers are going to stores to talk to the sales staff to make an informed choice about their purchase before going home to order it online.  The only advantage the store has over the internet is you can take your purchase home with you (in the case of small items) but as "next day delivery" services are becoming more efficient and more popular, this is not such an important factor to shoppers who are becoming more aware and driven by price.

I used to be a sales manager for an electrical retailer.  At the time, plasma T.V.s were the "must have" item.  My company was offering them at up to $1000 cheaper with a free stand on the internet.  To me this was very frustrating because my team wasn't able to hit their targets on these items because customers were coming in to look and talk to my team about them and then say "Can you match the internet price?".  Company policy was that we couldn't so the customer walked out and my team lost a sale.  As the internet becomes more widespread in homes, it is believed that more than a third of U.K. homes have broadband then it stands to reason that internet shopping will gradually be the way that most of us will purchase luxury items.

A second factor is that stores last year started their January sales earlier than ever (last week in December).  Shoppers are getting wise to massive discounts on these sales as stores make way for new season's ranges.  Many shoppers are keen to wait until the sales before making their Xmas purchases.

[BigSky]

Stores are pretty full here.  The weekends it gets unreal.

[Sluff]

A lot of internet shopping going on I think.

[kitkatz]

The weekends are unreal around here in our malls and shopping areas.