Last-minute Christmas shoppers scramble as time runs out

McALLEN — Santa Claus handed candy canes to children while Armando Bustillos sternly warned parents that Christmas Day was mere hours away and his store was the place to finish checking off names from their shopping lists.

Behind a microphone and a loud speaker, the 32-year-old Bustillos tried to hustle last-minute shoppers into Perfume Originales with pop music, humor and his best sales pitch.

“Inside, they’ll give you the lowest price possible,” Bustillos, who is a salesman at the store at the corner of Austin Avenue and Main Street, said in Spanish and English. “No need to waste your time shopping around.”

Few on McAllen’s streets had time to spare as they rushed to cross the final names off their gift lists. Others were only just starting their holiday shopping in the few hours left before stores closed for Christmas Eve.

Everyone had their reasons for waiting, but the most common was that they had simply been too busy.

At first, Aaron Aleman claimed he had no time to shop, saying he had been busy with work at a collection agency. Then he admitted that he waited until Thursday because the crowds were too daunting when he tried the week before.

“I didn’t even bother stopping,” the 19-year-old said. “You couldn’t even walk.”

Aleman perused racks of designer jeans at Colors Name Brand Clothing, where a few dozen shoppers — some of them clearly tired and others sagging under the weight of the day’s purchases — hunted for last-minute bargains.

Retailers have had a rough go of it the last two years as economic worries stifled spending and a declining Mexican peso deterred some Mexican nationals from shopping in the Rio Grande Valley. Owners and managers of stores in downtown McAllen have reported sales declines of as much as 30 percent since before the recession.

But it’s not all doom and gloom.

Colors Name Brand Clothing owner Eli Lizka said sales at his store at 114 S. Main St. have been good recently. During most of the Christmas shopping season, downtown McAllen has seemed busier than in recent years.

“We’ve been very fortunate,” he said. “I haven’t done the numbers yet, but we were busy.”

Whether the Christmas season was able to boost annual sales at Valley retailers remains to be seen.

Down the street at Gold Palace Perfumería y Joyería, Joe and Claudia Orozco sampled perfumes for a last-minute gift for a friend. Shopping for the children’s gifts was done in November, when 31-year-old Claudia Orozco braved cool weather and long lines to snatch up discounted toys and electronics on Black Friday.

Since then, Joe Orozco had been too busy with work to shop, and his wife had been busy with the children, whom she didn’t want to drag to the store. The couple got a babysitter Thursday so they could finish the gift shopping, including getting a bottle of perfume for a friend.

Selecting the right fragrance would involve a delicate calculation, Orozco joked.

“We try to cap it at a price, depending on how good of a friendship we have,” he said.

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Sean Gaffney covers business, the economy and general assignments for The Monitor. He can be reached at (956) 683-4434.