Survey: Consumers to spend on average more than $1,000 for the ...

Survey: Consumers to spend on average more than $1,000 for the ...

Gift givers have spent on average $1,034 on gifts for holidays and occasions through July 2006, nearly 20 percent more than they spent in the same period last year. If they continue buying gifts for friends and family at their present rate, total gift spending could top over $2,250 this year—a 12 percent rise over average spending in 2005, according to Unity Marketing's Gift Tracker quarterly purchasing study of gift givers.

Gift shoppers are expected to spend more than $1,000 for all holiday gifts

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Santa to visit Country Christmas in Broomfield

Santa to visit Country Christmas in Broomfield

It's a country Christmas weeklong event at the Olde Huckleberry House retail marketplace in Broomfield. Get a jump on your holiday shopping at our one of kind 6,000 square foot farmhouse marketplace on November 13th-19th with a special visit from Mr. and Mrs. Claus on Sat. and Sun. Our 18 different rooms will be filled with unique holiday decor, gifts, speciality items and much more. When you're done shopping you can sit back in our general store, sip hot cocoa and relax while listening to local carolers provide festive entertainment. There will be something for everyone in the family to enjoy. We're located at 11605 Old Wadsworth Blvd. in Broomfield. Our hours are Mon-Fri. 10am-5pm, Sat. 10am-6pm and Sun. 12-4pm. Give us a call at 303-464-8740 or visit our website at www.oldehuckleberry.com.

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Longer Xmas hours at Merry Hill

Longer Xmas hours at Merry Hill

Tills at the Merry Hill Shopping Centre will be ringing until midnight for the first time ever this year in the run-up to Christmas, bosses have announced.

Every store will stay open until midnight in the week building up to the celebrations. Last year the centre was heaving with customers until 10pm.

Shop owners are predicting the longer hours will be popular with people hunting for last minute gifts.

Bosses at the Westfield-run centre announced today from December 18, it will be open for 15 hours a day from Monday to Saturday. The centre will open its doors at 9am and shut at midnight.

It will close at 5pm on Christmas Eve and be shut on Christmas Day, reopening on Boxing Day.

The 10pm closing times come into force Monday to Friday from November 13, and until 8pm on Saturday and 5pm on Sunday.

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Humor me: Christmas Shopping

Humor me: Christmas Shopping The National Retail Federation announced recently that Americans would spend more money this holiday season than last year. It's the same annual prediction retailers have made since the 1960s, when this headline probably appeared somewhere: DEMAND FOR LAVA LAMPS SOARS Holiday spending expected to be 'totally groovy' So why should this year's prediction be any different? Especially with products like a new version of Tickle Me Elmo, the doll that proved we'll buy anything back in 1996. The original Tickle Me Elmo giggled when his stomach was squeezed -- or when he discovered you paid 30 bucks for a stuffed toy that vibrates. But here's the immense leap that tickling technology has taken in just 10 years: T.M.X. Elmo not only giggles, he will slap his knee and roll on his back when you tickle him.

UK Internet shopping seen surging at Christmas

UK Internet shopping seen surging at Christmas LONDON (Reuters) - More Britons than ever are expected to shop online this Christmas as better delivery times, greater ease with search engines and social networking sites like MySpace.com fuel shopper confidence. Hitwise UK, a leading tracker of Internet trends, compiled the forecasts and said supermarket giant Tesco could be among the biggest winners, indicating how much Britain's traditional retailers are expanding in cyberspace. "We project that the share of visits to retailers will increase by 8 percent over last year, an even stronger rate of growth than experienced in the busy 2005 season," Hitwise UK's research vice president Heather Hopkins told Reuters. Retail sales should peak in the second and third weeks of December, Hopkins added, reflecting consumers' growing trust in online retailers to get presents to them in time to put under the Christmas tree.

Night Spots It's not just a festival, it's Christmas shopping

Night Spots It's not just a festival, it's Christmas shopping Once again, this weekend offers an opportunity to have fun and help out. OK -- check the time. If you are reading this afternoon, you are already missing the New York State Wine and Music Festivale at the Roberson Museum & Science Center in Binghamton. It is starting without you. The good news is that if you are reading this before 7 p.m., you can still check it out. Front Street will be closed from Riverside Drive to Leroy Street for the event. There will be concerts by Danny and the Juniors and Sam the Sham and the Pharaohs. Both had two monster radio hits when my parents were teenagers, so I guess hearing "Wooly Bully" is about as close as I'll ever get, thankfully, to my dad's frat-house experience. However, for me, the most promising aspect of the Wine and Music Festivale is the potential to alleviate my annual last-minute holiday gift scramble.

S-hoppin' mad at bad service

S-hoppin' mad at bad service

Long lineups and uninformed staff due to Alberta's labour shortage have Calgary consumers dreading the Christmas shopping season more than ever.

A report by the Better Business Bureau suggests customers are growing increasingly frustrated as local retailers are forced to make do with less.

In the year ending Sept. 30, the BBB's southern Alberta office received 338 written complaints, more than double the 120 complaints registered from September 2004 to September 2005 and that doesn't count the steady stream of angry calls to the bureau.

The province's labour crunch has spawned soaring complaints from customers angry with waiting to pay for purchases, Nancy Brown, operations manager with the BBB said.

"I think in desperation some companies are hiring people that they're hoping are as qualified as they say they are," Brown said.

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