I don’t plan to hit the Memorial Day sales, although I am in need of a present for a baby shower in two weeks. Instead, I’m going to garden (i.e. pull out weeds), and finish projects around the house.
S.A. Young/Flickr
Are you among the 30 percent of holiday shoppers who are putting off your holiday shopping until the last minute, which happens to be this weekend? I got a jump start on my shopping last night and wanted to share a few things that worked for me.
1. Make a list ahead of time. You’ll either blank out or be overwhelmed by the massive selection without one. Need gift ideas? Check out my gift guide.
2. Plan a route that involves as little driving and re-parking as possible. Mall. Traffic. Is. Slow.
3. Eat first and bring a bottle of water. I like to pack a snack too, like string cheese, an apple, or trail mix. Don’t waste precious energy and patience waiting in line for food!
4. Wear walking shoes.
5. Stay on track by NOT shopping with a friend. Who needs another distraction?
6. Park at the empty corner of the mall (if there is one). Once you get inside, it doesn’t make much of a difference where you parked.
7. Save receipts in one spot to decrease the chances of misplacing one.
8. Always ask what the return policy is.
9. Ask for a discount if the item is damaged in any way, if you can pay in cash for a pricey item, if you are buying a number of items, or if there are other mitigating circumstances. Brush up on your haggling skills.
How do you prepare for last minute holiday shopping?
For 50 years Americans have been shopping at malls, but in these troubled times many are re-thinking their relationship to spending centers, says a story in the Sunday NY Times business section.
“Fiscal health isn’t possible until money is again sloshing into cash registers,” the story says. “In other words, shopping was part of the problem and now it’s part of the cure. And once we’re cured, economists report, we really need to learn how to save, which suggests that we will need to quit shopping again.”
Reporter David Segal, who wrote the story, goes to the behemoth Mall of America in Bloomington, Minn. to meet a young couple that gets married in the mall’s chapel, to talk to shoppers who brag about the prices they paid, and hear stories from retailers burdened by waves of returns and stingy customers.
The story is told through Americans’ love-hate relationship with the mall. “If we were actually in couples therapy with the mall, we’d have to confess to something: We have changed, not the mall. The economic crisis has caused shoppers to go into an essentials-only mode. But the mall has never trafficked in essentials.”
How does a mall survive when its bread and butter is vanilla-scented candles, buttered lobster bites, and virtual submarine rides? Read the whole story.
