FYI for December 23

[Ree]

Analysts are saying that this year's holiday sales will reach their peak time at 2 pm on Saturday, December 23.

" 'December 23rd will be 'last-chance Saturday' for millions of holiday shoppers as it's the last day of regular and extended store hours across the country,' says Brian Green, senior vice-president of Moneris. (*Moneris Solutions is the largest processor of electronic payments in Canada. ~Ree) 'For merchants, it will be like Game 7 of the Stanley Cup Final.'

The 23rd and the last Saturday before Christmas are always the most frenzied shopping days, he says, but this year they are one and the same, and that will create a perfect storm of mall madness."

Is everyone ready?

[Cedophile]

This makes me glad I'll be returning stateside after christmas. Nothing like escaping the nation to keep away from maniacs at Christmas time.

[digilight]

And just wait for the CC terminals to start going down about 2:01 on Saturday. Anybody here working retail that day having to deal with the tidal wave of shoppers has my complete and utter sympothy. Good luck and have yourself a cold beer/bourbon/soda/whatever your poison waiting for you when you get off with a nice hot shower/bath.

[CrazedClerk]

Ugh, I'm on for a nine hour shift that day.

Pray for me...

[Giggle Goose]

*gulp* I had heard that the last Saturday before Christmas was always the most busy day, even more so than Black Friday, which was HELL. And Ree's post brought a good point that I hadn't thought of: The 23rd is the last day of regular and extended hours. And this year the 23rd IS the last Sat. before Christmas! Egads!!!!!!! I'll be at my Grandma's anyway, and I work at a restaurant back home so it doesn't matter. But like I said, Black Friday was Hell and I can't even imagine what could be worse. *says prayer for Crazed Clerk*

[Irving Patrick Freleigh]

And I have the day off HAHAHAHAHAHA!

[MadMike]

I'm making sure not to go near any kind of shopping center that day.

Shouldn't be a problem, actually. We're going to my mom's for an early Christmas get-together, and she lives out in the sticks, far away from any kind of store. When we get back from there, we're probably staying put, and just watching movies, playing games, etc.

[Sandman]

Heh heh.. same here IPF.. same here...

AND MY PHONE WILL BE OFF!

[SteverinoNY]

I'm on for 6 hours (1-7) on Dec 23 at my super magical grocery store from hell running the self-checkout machines. I'm most likely going to be strangling someone with the cord from the scanning gun or shoving a pen into their temple when we run out of all the good stuff by 3 pm. This will be a hell of a lot of fun, but I did get Christmas Eve off...woooooooooooo!

[Misanthropical]

My husband usually does the Christmas shopping, since I have a huge crowd phobia and he doesn't feel like dealing with his wife having a melt down.

This year was a first. I actually did some Christmas shopping, but only because I had to exchange my little guy's new coat because the zipper broke and I noticed the store wasn't crowded, so I picked up some Christmas presents. I think my husband is still in shock.

[Retail Associate]

I've always noticed that our busiest day is Christmas Eve. Wall-to-wall SC's who can't find what they want because, like idiots, they waited until the very last minute to do their shopping. Lines at the checkouts that make their way into my dept and past the fitting rooms. People deciding they don't want to wait in one of those long lines so they walk off leaving a cart full of groceries...

Oh God! I don't think I'm gonna make it.

[DarthRetard]

Ha.....shucks. I'm closing the store the night before...which means I'll be opening. GAH!!!!!!!

[Kiwi]

we have broken store records every single day this year, not just the record for that day last year, but the biggest take every....each day

I swear we have 1/3 of the product we started with on Nov 19 (our christmas season starts then) and people are getting really desperate

our jewellry cases are empty, no amber, no dichoriac glass, our display rooms are empty, out of 250 pieces of pottery we have 8 left!!! We literally have nothing!

and people are picking over the bones! buying buying buying!

some of the shelfs were literally empty, nothing on them, our stock room is empty, our basement storage is empty, our lockers are empty, we actually have nothing!

thank god I dont work again until christmas eve and thats only a 4 hour shift!

[Retail Associate]

we have broken store records every single day this year, not just the record for that day last year, but the biggest take every....each day

Judging from the way things are going at my store, I wouldn't be surprised to hear of record breaking sales, either. There are a lot of empty shelves/cases throughout the store. Seems all that's left now is the junkiest of the junk we sell. Certainly nothing anyone would want to receive as a gift.

[TNT]

It's not surprising, I suppose, that retail's busy time is cable's slow time... it's been very quiet in tech support these days. Between days off, holidays and vacation I have to use up, I'm only working 3 of the next 12 days.

That, combined with the yearly visit by the Ghost of Christmas Stupid every Dec. 23rd, means I'll be one of those people out shopping on Saturday.