HOUSTON — Malls across the Houston area were busy on the last day of the holiday shopping season leading up to Christmas.
It comes as retail experts expect sales numbers to beat the previous year’s totals despite the pandemic.
At rush hour Thursday evening, there was a last-minute rush to the Galleria before stores closed for the holiday.
“I just had to do last-minute Christmas shopping because I have a bad habit of shopping for myself instead of other people,” said De’Ja Evans.
“It’s chaos, dude, always,” said Tommy Tecson. “Expected. That’s kind of what I get. That’s kind of my punishment.”
Evans and Tecson had plenty of company at malls across the Houston area on Christmas Eve afternoon.
Images captured from Air 11 showed busy parking lots at Katy Mills, First Colony Mall and Memorial City Mall.
Stores at Memorial City were limiting capacity, and the mall urged social distancing and mask-wearing for everyone.
Still, COVID-19 restrictions aren’t limiting what shoppers spend.
The National Retail Federation expects holiday sales in 2020 to climb between 3.6 to 5.2 percent higher than in 2019.
The group’s CEO credits an improving economy and families wanting to lift spirits during a tough year.
“I hope they’ll like it,” said Tecson, of the gift he planned to buy. “You know, something simple but something sentimental.”
“You still want that cheer,” said Evans. “We’ve had so much taken away from us this year.”
NRF numbers also show 59 percent of people had started their holiday shopping by early November.
Those numbers line up with what some store managers said that same month.
“Our business has really been on fire since the beginning of October,” said Penny Amaya, manager of American Girl at Memorial City Mall during an interview on Black Friday.
Amaya said those customers shopped early hoping to avoid crowds.
For the same reason, more people are shopping online this year too. NRF data showed 60 percent of people planned to holiday shop online in 2020 compared to 56 percent in 2019.