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What’s your holiday shopping style?

By Joe Kleinsasser

Some holiday shoppers shop early and often. Others procrastinate and wait until the last minute. Some enjoy the spirit of the season and the hustle and bustle. Others would just as soon shop from a catalog at home.

WSU psychologist and American culture expert Don Nance says the holiday shopping strategies are as varied as the shoppers themselves.

“The holidays bring out a whole array of different kinds of shoppers and we all approach shopping differently.”

Here are some of those styles.

• Early bird shopper — “This shopper is both early at the store when it opens and they’re also early in the season,” Nance says. “They operate off the ‘early bird gets the worm’ motto and they’re very proud of the fact that they are finished with their shopping way before Christmas.”

• Last minute shopper — “This shopper rushes around at the last minute and is convinced that the gifts that they happened upon and target are ideal for the people they have in mind. Frequently, the truth is that they have put gift buying off and procrastinated.”

• Bargain hunter shopper — “They put off the real shopping until those after-the-holiday sales and then they hit the store with the fervor of the early bird shopper.”

• The pace yourself shopper — “These shoppers shop frequently but not for very long and stop after they’ve accomplished finding a few gifts. They are not in the shop-till-you-drop category.”

Nance says the holiday crowds are a positive part of the season for some shoppers. “It has them feeling as though they are part of a lot of people doing the holiday spirit thing. They really enjoy a crowded store and a packed parking lot.”

In contrast, Nance says other shoppers see crowds as a significant deterrent. These shoppers would prefer to shop by thumbing through catalogs at home.

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