Victor, N.Y. (WHAM) — Thousands visited Eastview Mall on Sunday, scrambling for last-minute gifts as Rochester prepares for the holidays. Sunday afternoon brought packed parking lots to Eastview’s nearly 140 stores.
The holiday season brings some of the heaviest traffic for Eastview Mall, according to mall management.
“I got stuff for myself,” said Ava Vlatkovic. “I got a couple people some sweatshirts and stuff.”
“I got two little kids,” said Tom Griffith. “I chose to come out now.”
The Saturday before Christmas, “Super Saturday,” as it’s sometimes called, can draw between 60 to 75 thousand customers to the property, according to General Manager Mike Kauffman.
“They’ve got to get one or two items, and then they leave,” said Kauffman. “There are a lot of people. And then, you know, particularly males, who do most of their shopping that week before Christmas. And you know, you see a lot of that, particularly over the next couple of days.”
Indeed, many we spoke to say this was the case.
“Men are procrastinators,” said a chuckling Matthew Smith. “We love to procrastinate. I mean, that’s why men are usually lost without women. Women, they know how to get things done.”
“For the most part, I think people just kind of just put it off,” said Lincoln Calip. “You know, procrastination, and then they’re just like, you know, let me hurry up and try to get these gifts in for us too late.”
Though they might have been making those last minute trips as many of us do, these holiday shoppers were in the spirit of giving.
Steve Farrington came to shop for his family, and give blood.
“So it’s kind of goes along with the Christmas spirit, right?” said Farrington. “In this case, I encourage everyone to go out there and give blood, because it’s really necessary.”
“It’s a great time of year,” said Kauffman. “Our retailers love this time of year. It’s a lot of fun. It’s very busy, you know, obviously, you know, it’s a long season in a long couple of months, but we enjoy it. It’s an important part of our year, and we do our best to provide for our shoppers.”
Kauffman said the busiest time of year, the mall’s holiday season, runs between Nov. 1 and Jan. 1. The months are predicted to bring two million customers through the building.
The National Retail Federation predicted about 157 million Americans would shop on the Saturday before Christmas. That prediction was about 16 million more than 2023.
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