Define “Last Minute Shopping”

[BroadwayHermione5]

If anyone has ever heard of the musical She Loves Me (an absolute darling musical and the 2016 revival cast proshot is available to watch on broadway HD)

There is a song called “12 Days to Christmas” that goes from 12, to 9, to 4 and then 1 day to Xmas. The song gets faster and more chaotic and complex with lyrics as the days dwindle down. Watching it is absolutely hilarious, being in that number is chaos and also hilarious (did the show in college).

But that to me is the definition of last minute shopping.

Also having worked seasonal retail the amount of humans who shop the 23rd and 24th and expect sizes and boxes and stuff is astounding

 

[china mom]

My SIL is the ultimate last minute shopper. Our side of the family would celebrate Christmas the first weekend after Christmas. We had my brother SIL and their kids spend the night with us the night before and headed over to my mother's house together. She said that we had to stop at Target on the way. We ran into the store and she went on a whirlwind shopping spree, buying everything that she was giving to my mother and other brother. And even bought tape and wrapping paper to wrap everything on the five minute ride to my mother's house!

So, I would say that December 30, five minutes before the party is last minute.

 

[FoundMyPrince]

Last minute is December 23-24...and we've shopped on both of those day many years.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

I'm going to go with it depends if in person or online.

In person could be day of in this case you're lucky if you can get day of Christmas because of what is even open but I think Christmas eve also counts because many stores close early too.

Online is whatever deadline it would take to get it to you before your event. Even with Amazon not everything can get to you in two days with prime, 1 day or same-day so if you waited too long to get something to make sure it got there (pending things out of your control) I'd call that last minute too.

 

[mumto3girls]

I felt like I was out there “last minute” today. I just needed a few stocking stuffers, a few last minute groceries, a couple of gift cards for my kids to “even” things up and some additional adult refreshments for Christmas Day. It was a zoo. Getting some winter weather with extreme cold a few days before Christmas makes the grocery store a bit crazy. But I am home now and other than going to my dad’s Christmas Eve, I don’t need to venture out until at least Tuesday.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Getting some winter weather with extreme cold a few days before Christmas makes the grocery store a bit crazy.

It was like that for us on Tuesday when we went to the grocery store for stuff. The winter storm hit today and onto to tomorrow so people who were likely to be out getting food or other things maybe Thursday and Friday were instead doing it more on Tuesday. The shelves were fine for the most part but were quite a disaster in terms of organization so people probably frazzled shopped. We went to Walmart and there were no carts left inside on the grocery side at least and not many in the cart corals (my husband had to get one from there and noticed that), just that many people in there with them.

 

[Smugpugmug]

I felt like I was out there “last minute” today. I just needed a few stocking stuffers, a few last minute groceries, a couple of gift cards for my kids to “even” things up and some additional adult refreshments for Christmas Day. It was a zoo. Getting some winter weather with extreme cold a few days before Christmas makes the grocery store a bit crazy. But I am home now and other than going to my dad’s Christmas Eve, I don’t need to venture out until at least Tuesday.

I had the same experience today. I went to two different grocery stores to buy food to take to Orlando tomorrow and both stores were INSANE. The dairy section and the aisle with the bottled water were completely empty. My area isn't even getting a massive storm (some snow tomorrow but nothing like the Midwest). There were also people buying wrapping paper and Christmas candies so there were people just doing last minute shopping rather than panic buying.

 

[FlightlessDuck]

December 24th.

 

[mumto3girls]

It was like that for us on Tuesday when we went to the grocery store for stuff. The winter storm hit today and onto to tomorrow so people who were likely to be out getting food or other things maybe Thursday and Friday were instead doing it more on Tuesday. The shelves were fine for the most part but were quite a disaster in terms of organization so people probably frazzled shopped. We went to Walmart and there were no carts left inside on the grocery side at least and not many in the cart corals (my husband had to get one from there and noticed that), just that many people in there with them.

Yes. You must be a bit ahead of us weather wise (southwestern PA here). Our weather is just a bit of rain right now, but temperatures are dropping fast tomorrow and then we will also get some snow.

As I was walking into the grocery store a woman stopped me with a cart and told me to take it as they were hard to come by. That filled me with a bit of dread, but the shelves were still fairly well stocked, just too many people and some of them looked like they aren’t typically the one to do the shopping.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

Yes. You must be a bit ahead of us weather wise (southwestern PA here). Our weather is just a bit of rain right now, but temperatures are dropping fast tomorrow and then we will also get some snow.

As I was walking into the grocery store a woman stopped me with a cart and told me to take it as they were hard to come by. That filled me with a bit of dread, but the shelves were still fairly well stocked, just too many people and some of them looked like they aren’t typically the one to do the shopping.

Yeah midwest here. It's actually "warmed up" a few degrees in terms of wind chill from earlier today when the snow hit. It wasn't quite blizzard-like as they were calling for but it was blowing snow and I'd estimate about 1-2 inches of snow at most.

Presently


The overnight low is possibly wind chill of- 40 but we'll see.

I feel bad for the Amazon drivers having to get out in this especially as many people haven't had the opportunity to shovel their driveways. The plows have come through though. I'd say that was last minute shopping but if you ordered something and it was scheduled to be delivered today I'd say you got it in time...but I would expect some people to not have their stuff delivered until tomorrow anyways. Tomorrow won't be as cold (it was supposed to be but arctic temps came slightly earlier than it was listed a few days ago) but still feels like -16 during the day and -22 at night.

It's the worst timing for packages BUT y'all in the north east will have worst timing in terms of traveling and being that close to Christmas. We'll likely have a white Christmas but only because it's too dang cold for it to melt lol.

 

[Kitty 34]

Define "last minute shopping"..................

Kdonnel's new thread.

 

[JLTraveling]

Yeah midwest here. It's actually "warmed up" a few degrees in terms of wind chill from earlier today when the snow hit. It wasn't quite blizzard-like as they were calling for but it was blowing snow and I'd estimate about 1-2 inches of snow at most.

Presently
View attachment 726870

The overnight low is possibly wind chill of- 40 but we'll see.

I feel bad for the Amazon drivers having to get out in this especially as many people haven't had the opportunity to shovel their driveways. The plows have come through though. I'd say that was last minute shopping but if you ordered something and it was scheduled to be delivered today I'd say you got it in time...but I would expect some people to not have their stuff delivered until tomorrow anyways. Tomorrow won't be as cold (it was supposed to be but arctic temps came slightly earlier than it was listed a few days ago) but still feels like -16 during the day and -22 at night.

It's the worst timing for packages BUT y'all in the north east will have worst timing in terms of traveling and being that close to Christmas. We'll likely have a white Christmas but only because it's too dang cold for it to melt lol.

HOW do you deal with wind chills that low? Serious question from someone who's always lived in the South. We're projected to have wind chills in the single digits for the next couple of days and everyone is freaking out, me included. I just can't fathom -40 or even -16.

 

[Mackenzie Click-Mickelson]

HOW do you deal with wind chills that low? Serious question from someone who's always lived in the South. We're projected to have wind chills in the single digits for the next couple of days and everyone is freaking out, me included. I just can't fathom -40 or even -16.

It usually doesn't get this cold. -10 to -15 windchill? Yeah that's a tad more common although not usually for many days in a row. Northern midwest gets these really low low temps more than we do. Here in my area we just tend to get short bursts of arctic air that drop it to soooo low. We were however caught up in the February 2021 deep freeze.

The wind picked up a bit more and the windchill is -32. My husband just got done about an hour ago from using our snow thrower and it was the perfect snow for it--dry, he said about 2 inches down. He didn't stay out but more than 15 or so minutes and really that's enough in this cold.

To deal with it mostly you just don't go out unless absolutely necessary which is much easier with the pandemic and companies allowing work from home. All around the news they were telling people to really try and stay home today especially with the snow and cold. My husband worked from home today and tomorrow they get half a day but he worked enough today that tomorrow he'll take the whole day off. Had he worked it would have also been at home.

If you gotta go out make sure layers are on, gloves, hat, etc and a blanket in the car. For our house I made sure to charge our rechargable flashlight and all the portable chargers. We also have these very bright battery flashlights that are good for power outages as well as outside in our backyard which gets pitch black. We haven't changed our thermostat so it's still 69 day/68 for the evening the furnace will already be working hard enough. Keep extra blankets around for you in the house if you get chilled.

You might look into what your area recommends about faucets that are near the exterior of the house. In our area they recommend dripping with cabinet doors open where the water pipes are but that isn't always the advice it can depend on how the water systems are set up in a given city/county/region. Our house is newer and we don't have the exterior faucet issue much but we'll still watch out.

Stay warm

 

[JLTraveling]

It usually doesn't get this cold. -10 to -15 windchill? Yeah that's a tad more common although not usually for many days in a row. Northern midwest gets these really low low temps more than we do. Here in my area we just tend to get short bursts of arctic air that drop it to soooo low. We were however caught up in the February 2021 deep freeze.

The wind picked up a bit more and the windchill is -32. My husband just got done about an hour ago from using our snow thrower and it was the perfect snow for it--dry, he said about 2 inches down. He didn't stay out but more than 15 or so minutes and really that's enough in this cold.

To deal with it mostly you just don't go out unless absolutely necessary which is much easier with the pandemic and companies allowing work from home. All around the news they were telling people to really try and stay home today especially with the snow and cold. My husband worked from home today and tomorrow they get half a day but he worked enough today that tomorrow he'll take the whole day off. Had he worked it would have also been at home.

If you gotta go out make sure layers are on, gloves, hat, etc and a blanket in the car. For our house I made sure to charge our rechargable flashlight and all the portable chargers. We also have these very bright battery flashlights that are good for power outages as well as outside in our backyard which gets pitch black. We haven't changed our thermostat so it's still 69 day/68 for the evening the furnace will already be working hard enough. Keep extra blankets around for you in the house if you get chilled.

You might look into what your area recommends about faucets that are near the exterior of the house. In our area they recommend dripping with cabinet doors open where the water pipes are but that isn't always the advice it can depend on how the water systems are set up in a given city/county/region. Our house is newer and we don't have the exterior faucet issue much but we'll still watch out.

Stay warm

Thanks! I admire people who are hardy enough to survive those temps. Pretty sure I was born with red ice water instead of blood in my veins lol. I'm layering up when it gets down to 50, so this is just mind boggling. The city told us to drip the faucet furthest from the water meter and open the cabinets, so hopefully that'll work. Our house, like most in NOLA, is raised with exposed pipes underneath. But it's a rental and I'm not about to crawl under the house to wrap the pipes, and our landlord hasn't asked us to. The next parish over most of the houses are on concrete slabs and they're saying not to worry about the pipes in those houses. It'll be an interesting few days for sure. Thankfully I'm off work, and work from home anyway, and everything is done that needs doing. And we do have portable power sources and lots of flashlights (hurricane prep), and the city has three warming centers open just in case.

Stay warm and stay safe!

 

[Magical2017]

People who run to the grocery store on Christmas morning to get gift cards and whatever is in the candy/floral/miscellaneous items isle are what I consider last-minute shoppers. Shopping on Christmas eve is a tradition for some.

I finished shopping today and everything is wrapped. DH has a few things coming from Amazon on Saturday. We're getting there.

 

[mylilnikita]

My ex would do it all Christmas Eve. Luckily we weren’t together for long because I don’t like the madness of it.

However, our dd is trying to live up the legacy lol.

I had to go out today my usual day of week to grocery pick up. She wanted a ride along. We go to Target (not where I planned to go) but it wasn’t bad.then she mentioned hitting 5 Below, no we will not be doing that. Picked up groceries and she ran into Dollar Tree. While I sat in the parking lot watching the craziness around me lol

 

[Babs Johnson]

When winter officially begins, so after 4:47pm EST on Wednesday.

I’m a notorious last minute shopper. I actually enjoy the rush and confusion, but even better is watching other shoppers freak out.

I never understood people who say they start (or finish!!) Christmas shopping in the summer or even earlier. Say you bought a gift for someone in July then they get run over by a dump truck on Halloween. It’s too late to return the gift for credit/refund and you run the risk of extreme embarrassment if you regift it to someone else.

It’s better to wait until the last minute.

 

[Babs Johnson]

Last minute to me is Christmas Eve/Day. I see it happen on other days too: Mother's Day, Valentine's, you name it. The date before and the day of are the days everyone is flooding the greeting card aisle and buying stuffed chimps and chocolate. Then they feed the chocolate to their SO, and their SO becomes a stuffed chimp.

I will say, the local Walmart has been ridiculously busy as of even early this week. I need to go to the store again today, and I'm sensing echos of Thanksgiving: all the good eggs will probably be bought up.

about the stuffed chimp becoming the SO.

I must say that for Valentines I’m NOT one of those guys in the card aisle at 6pm. I get my wife’s card and gift at least a week in advance. Sure, flowers are picked up that day but everything else in advance.

 

[RedAngie]

Lots of places have Valentines merchandise out already but Big Lots goes a step further. Better hurry before it’s all gone.



They also have spring and garden stuff out.

 

[Kathryn Merteuil]

Just my opinion, anything Dec 20 or later.

However, it feels like last minute shopping if it's anything after Black Friday lol