Shopping centers throughout the Washington area on Monday saw a glut of postponed “Super Saturday” customers, causing long lines and road bottlenecks as shoppers scrambled to make up for a weekend of lost gift buying.
Retailers and experts were not sure, however, if the last days before Christmas could make up for the loss of what is typically the biggest shopping day of the year, after a record snowstorm this weekend shut down roads and transit and prompted widespread store closures.
Mall traffic was robust and lively, though not all of the shopping outlets could be described as swamped.
The Fair Oaks mall area was popular enough to grind traffic on some surrounding roads to a standstill. The entrance to the Tysons Corner Center was also badly congested, as school and government closings gave many local residents a free day to shop.
At the Fashion Centre at Pentagon City, shoppers jampacked the passage between the Metro station and shops. There, the Helzberg Diamonds store had seen a pickup in sales during the day, and could expect a higher-than-normal volume during the coming week, said Regional Manager Sam Varney. Though optimistic, Varney said he doubted it was possible to recoup all the lost business from Saturday.
“We’ll pick up quite a bit of business over the next four days,” he said. “Will it be enough to cover that Saturday — and Sunday was a little bit soft as well — probably not.”
Borders Books & Music said it would extend its hours in the Washington area as a result of the storm, a move National Retail Federation spokeswoman Kathy Grannis expected other retailers to duplicate over the next few days.
The storm “definitely put a dent in retailers’ and shoppers’ last-minute holiday plans,” she said. “But there’s plenty of time between now and Friday, and I think many retailers will take a look at their store hours to accommodate the shoppers this week.”
The Westfield Wheaton mall was bustling with those shoppers, trodding through slush and around frigid pools left by melting snow.
Sue Stevenson, from Kensington, said she was “making up for lost shopping” from Saturday, and was finally finished. Nancy Ayers of Ijamsville, too, had completed her Christmas shopping after losing time this weekend.
“It’s crowded, very crowded,” she said. “Like a Saturday.”
