Estimated read time: 1-2 minutes
This archived news story is available only for your personal, non-commercial use. Information in the story may be outdated or superseded by additional information. Reading or replaying the story in its archived form does not constitute a republication of the story.
Brooke Walker Reporting The holiday shopping clock is ticking, 20 days left until Christmas. If you haven't hit the stores yet, you are not alone.
For many people, that yearly Christmas shopping list is a yearly headache. At the Gateway today we found plenty of people trying to tackle the task, but progress varied.
"Doing great actually, well pretty good. Just about done. I'm halfway there."
"I've got two people left. I'm almost done. Eighteen out of twenty done."
"I haven't gotten it quite done yet. A lot to go."
This time of year many shoppers welcome full bags and empty wallets, both signs they're ready for the holiday. But others have yet to even step foot in a store. In a recent poll by Survey USA for KSL-TV, 22% of you said you have not even started your Christmas shopping, while 16% of you said you were completely done and ready to go. And 29% of you are about halfway there.
Retailers aren't complaining. Last year shoppers spent a total of 414 billion dollars during the 2004 holiday season. This year experts predicted that amount to increase by about 5%. But that all depends on who you ask.
Here in Utah only 21% of you say you plan to spend more than in previous years. 31% plan to spend less.
