CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR

CHRISTIAN SCIENCE MONITOR
NEW YORK -- Joyce Gioia would like to get her holiday shopping done. But for the past two months, the Greensboro, N.C., woman has spent more time in airports than malls.
Cornelius Simpkins hasn't bought anything yet because he's appalled by the "crass commercialism." But, the Schwenksville, Pa., man expects he'll cave in on the day before Christmas. And Debra Lund of Salt Lake City is sitting on her wallet because she's hoping for discounts on iPods, surround-sound systems, and digital cameras.
Gioia, Simpkins and Lund are all part of a growing Christmas club: procrastinators. Retail experts believe Americans' propensity to wait until the last minute to shop is one of the major reasons why holiday sales have so far been lower than expected.
If the experts are right, the malls will be packed Saturday as Americans suddenly realize it's their last weekend to shop. Many retailers are catering to them: They're advertising some gifts as great "last minute" ideas or even setting up Web sites that specialize in filling orders quickly.
"I think a lot of people think the longer they wait, the better the bargain," says Jay MacIntosh, a director of retail and consumer products for Ernst & amp; Young LLP in Chicago. "That's why this weekend will be critical for the holiday period and the year as a whole."
Winter wardrobe
Some analysts blame lackluster post-Thanksgiving sales on the weather. Many parts of the country have been warmer than normal. However, this past week, Old Man Winter is giving consumers from Maine to Florida goose bumps -- a factor that might actually help. "There will be some cashmere sold today," says Scott Krugman of the National Retail Federation in Washington. "We'll see a lot more buying of winter apparel over the next two weeks."
The sales will certainly help merchants. Some surveys have found that as of last weekend, consumers had completed less than 15 percent of their holiday shopping.
Regina Conti, an associate professor of psychology at Colgate University in Hamilton, N.Y., thinks one reason people delay shopping may be that some perceive it as less and less pleasant as they fight traffic and crowds in the malls.
That's the case with Brian Hoyt and his wife, Stephanie, who live in Alexandria, Va., and haven't cracked their wallets yet. "We want to avoid the mall," says Brian Hoyt. "I don't want to deal with the crowds."
Lund's strategy for this coming weekend is to be at the mall at 9 a.m.
"I've read that the deals will be great," she says. Even shopping this close to Christmas will be an improvement over last year, when, faced with family illnesses, she raced into Costco on Dec. 24 and bought all her gifts in one 31/2 hour spree. "I've never done anything that nuts in my life."
Yet for others, the delay may be due to their concept of the holiday as too commercial, says Conti, who has studied procrastinators.
That's the case with Simpkins, who says he is appalled that holiday decorations seem to be going up even before Halloween. "I'm not overtly religious," he says, "but at least I can respect the holiday. People should extend more charitable giving instead of bailing out the U.S. economy."