AUSTIN -- When American humorist and philosopher Don Marquis wrote "procrastination is the art of keeping up with yesterday," perhaps he was talking about last-minute Christmas shoppers.
"Right now it doesn't seem like it's that bad," said Allison Gursoy as she walked through The Domain in North Austin.
"Just one of these things where we happen to be the last minute shoppers," said Wally Wallace. "We always do."
For Michael Jeer, waiting is about strategy. "I thought I could get in and out a little faster."
As of Friday, only 32 percent of all Americans had finished their Christmas shopping. That means more than 130 million people planned to shop the weekend before.
"Procrastination at it's finest," laughed Gursoy.
So just why do so many people wait until Santa is loading his sleigh to fill their bags?
"Maybe the husband waits until the last minute to tell them what they want," said Britt Mendenez with a smile on her face.
"I've got my three little princesses here, my 'little cubs' I call them," Jeer said. "We're actually keeping them out of mommy's hair while she gets the party ready at home."
"I don't know. It's just life gets into the way up until now," added Wallace.
Shoppers say waiting until the final hour isn't so bad. After all, there are some pretty nice perks to shopping at the last minute.
"Less lines, some of the prices have dropped dramatically, trying to get those things off the shelf," noted Jeer.
"Lots of sales. I saw a lot of things were 40 percent off yesterday," said Gursoy.
Not only are stores offering great sales, they are opening earlier and closing later. Or in the case of Macy's, not closing at all. For the first time, all 800 of the department chain's stores are open, non-stop the weekend before Christmas. Even when the doors do close at midnight Sunday, they re-open Monday at 7:00 a.m.
"I feel bad for the people that are working, but I guess it's good for the people who still need to shop," said Gursoy.
For some, it's a time to spread some Christmas cheer.
"It's kind of nice to wait until the last minute to shop because then you're kind of in the same boat with a lot of other people, and you can all kind of look at each other like 'Merry Christmas,'" said Mendenez.
