Holiday shopping panic begins with only a few weeks before Christmas

The holiday shopping panic has begun! People across Southwest Florida are packing stores with just 18 days left to go before Christmas.

With Thanksgiving being so late this year, there’s less time to shop—only three weekends to be exact.

Some people hope they can get their shopping done Friday or this weekend. Others, as we know, prefer to wait until the last minute.

The Black Friday crowds are gone, the weather’s great and store managers hope that means a busy weekend.

“We just actually began our shopping today, so imagining on a Friday it’s going to get super busy, so that’s why we got here early,” said Jennifer Bondy, who was shopping at Miromar Outlets.

“They’ve been very helpful, the lines haven’t been long, the shelves are stocked…everybody’s ready to go,” said Dawn Leclair, who was picking up a few things at Walmart.

Sam Colgain lives right around the corner from Coconut Point Mall and he thinks because there’s less time between Thanksgiving and Christmas, there are more people in the stores.

“We didn’t go out on Black Friday,” he said. “We’ve seen the crowds here and we decided to do a little bit of shopping later. Seems to be a little bit busier this year than in the past.”

But just 10 minutes down the road at Miromar Outlets, we met shoppers who came across the state to avoid the crowds and shop in peace.

“It’s a lot less traffic over here, a lot less people,” said Rose Powers.

Some shoppers said they’re part of the ever-growing trend of doing their shopping from the comfort of their own home.

“I do everything online, it avoids the crowds, the parking,” said Illona Miller.

No matter where or how you shop, the clock is ticking for you to get the people you love something they’ll love.

If you haven’t started your shopping just yet, you’d better watch out! Those Christmas deals are going fast.