For those of you hoping to do your holiday shopping online, it’s probably too late to have your gifts delivered in time for the holiday, which means local Connecticut stores are very busy with last-minute shoppers trying to get everything checked off their Christmas lists before the big day.
Some people, like Kathy Gorge from Unionville, enjoy that Christmas crunch time.
“It’s kind of a day out so it just makes the whole time a lot more festive,” said Gorge, who went shopping for her grandkid in downtown West Hartford Thursday.
Others would rather not be tasked with last-minute shopping.
“There’s a certain point where somebody starts yelling at me and I have to go out to stores,” Sean Cronin from West Hartford said.
Local shop owners welcome the business.
“It’s amazing to me how long people wait-- they really wait until the last minute every year,” said Kimberly Mattson Moster, who owns Kimberly Boutique & Kimberly Gift in West Hartford. “The day that you can’t order online anymore, we get much busier.”
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Shoppers come into Kimberly’s store in looking for all kinds of unique gifts.
“We carry a little bit of everything. People look for ideas, and a lot of people just want to be around-- they want to enjoy the holiday spirit so it’s fun to do it in here,” she explained.
At The Toy Chest right across the street, workers are busy this time of year wrapping up and ringing out toys for good girls and boys.
“I still have to do more shopping for my goddaughter and my grandkids,” said Betsy Polanco from East Hartford.
“So far it’s been a good crazy, and we’re very pleased,” Ed Dunn, the Toy Manager at the colorful toy store said. “The next five days are frenetic.”
This year, Dunn said Christmas seemed to arrive even sooner than usual.
“Because we lost a week between the two holidays and all of a sudden people are waking up and saying, ‘wait a minute, Christmas is next week!’” Dunn explained.
This is the busiest time of year for The Toy Chest, and as long as the weather cooperates the next few days, Ed said 2019 will turn out to be a great year for his business.
