Thousands of shoppers braved busy malls throughout Ottawa Monday in search of the perfect, last-minute Christmas gift.
Statistics show that the majority of people shopping on Christmas Eve are men.
“There’s all these guys in the Body Shop or whatever obviously buying for their significant others or their moms just like me,” said Geoffrey Molnar. “We all just bought the pre-wrapped packages of the collection of stuff.”
Ryan Elliott said he left shopping until the last minute because of “sales and I’m just lazy I guess.”
“I waited until the last minute because I work better under pressure,” said Sue MacPherson.
It’s the busiest time of the year for retailers.
“It’s been pretty hectic, we've got a lot of last-minute shoppers, a lot of guys coming in they want some complete gift sets,” said Jenees Jegatheeswaran with Fruits & Passion at Bayshore Shopping Centre. “We make most of our money of the year during Christmas time especially with smaller boutiques; we're a Canadian boutique so we rely on our Canadian customers to come in around this time of the year."
Many stores at Bayshore are offering big savings ahead of Boxing Day.
“Most of the stores, you walk around, I think almost two thirds of them already have their Boxing Week sales on, and you see a lot of 70 per cent, even 80 per cent off signs,” said Denis Pelletier, the mall’s general manager.
So will some shoppers start their Christmas shopping earlier next year?
“Do you want me to lie and say yes?” said Brooke Kelford. “Probably not. It’s easier to leave it until the last minute.”
With a report from CTV Ottawa’s Katie Griffin
