With half-empty shopping bags and determined expressions, few shoppers wandered the Inner Harbor Monday, hoping to purchase gifts on the final day of Christmas shopping.
“I still have five people to shop for,” said Kenya Dunn, 25, as she hurried across Pratt Street toward the Gallery Mall. “I?m just a last-minute person.”
Kevin Jones, 47, standing outside Barnes & Noble, said he had to wait until the 11th hour to buy presents for his three grandsons. “I got laid off from my construction job three weeks ago,” he said, clutching two shopping bags. “Luckily, I still managed to get something for the kids.”
At the National Aquarium in Baltimore, Samantha Lozano, a “visitor advocate,” said she was surprised by the small midmorning crowd.
“Seventy percent of the people do their shopping before Christmas Eve, so you would think 30 percent of the people would be shopping now.”
The 17-year-old city resident said that after the aquarium closed at 2 p.m., she would be hitting the stores.
“I still need to buy presents.”
Some downtown visitors were not shopping at all, deciding to take an eco-friendly approach to the holidays.
“Ninety-nine percent of the presents bought end up in the trash six months later,” said Rolla Chng, who along with her brother Tim said they were bypassing traditional gift-buying, choosing to exchange recycled presents instead. “It?s not good to create more waste,” she said.
Waiting in line to visit Santa at the Light Street Pavilion with three young sons in tow, Carroll County residents Wes and Jan Park said their annual visit to downtown Baltimore includes both shopping and food. “My wife is usually prepared, but she has a few more gifts to buy,” he said.
The lack of shoppers did not discourage purveyors of the city?s more lurid services. Strolling along the Pratt Street pavilion, a man who calls himself “New York” and works the night shift at a bar on the block, predicted the city?s red-light district would do brisk business Christmas Eve.
“It doesn?t matter the time of year or what else is going on, sex sells, regardless of the holidays.”
