Christmas observation—retail may do better than forecast

I don’t know what the final retail reports will say about this Christmas season. But everywhere I’ve gone the stores have been packed. My husband and I tried to shop at the new Whole Foods Market last weekend. He ended up ushering me to the exit after bargain happy shoppers almost ran us down with carts. The crowd was elbow to elbow. We should’ve turned around when we first arrived and learned the store was having a Grand Opening Day. We remembered that after an SUV driver almost mowed us down in the parking lot. I figure there’s a Christmas angel on every corner this time of year.

At the grocery store yesterday, it was the same. People walked around with big lists, looking for hard to find items like the mini-cupcake liners it seemed to take me forever to find. My daughter dropped by Barnes and Noble for a few last minute gifts and she said the place was crazy. She said Target and World Market were busy too. Target was the busiest of all.

We traveled to South Carolina last week for our annual Christmas gathering of the tribes and the cars were bumper to bumper on both sides of I-95, a sharp contrast to the sparse traffic we encountered when gas was so high.

Does this mean the economy is picking up? Or did everyone end up like us, doing things last minute because the end of the year has been so busy it’s been hard to shop?

Whatever the case, hopefully retail will come out better than forecasts suggested. There are deals galore right now for those brave enough to face the harried shoppers searching for that last minute deal that makes a perfect gift. Gift cards are popular with us this year, simply because times are tough and we figure with a gift card, the recipient can pick up what he or she needs.

I’ll soon have an idea what Christmas Eve shopping will be like. Yesterday, our trusty stainless steel percolator developed a crack in the plastic base on the bottom. I tried to convince my husband to buy a drip coffeemaker while we finished our shopping yesterday, but it was hopeless. It has to be a stainless steel percolator or we’ll have to resort to drinking tea. I’m hoping I can talk him into venturing to the Wal-Mart or Target while I put the Christmas Eve feast together. Being the chief cook sometimes has its advantages.

And I’m hoping retailers will report the figures better than economists projected. From the vantage point I’ve had, the shopping has proceeded at a healthy pace, so Christmas may turn out rosy for retailers after all. Maybe there’s an angel on the retail corner like the one who saved half a dozen of us from the SUV driver at Whole Foods Market.

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Merry Christmas to my readers--and whatever your faith, may your holidays be blessed with love, the greatest gift of all.