UNION SQUARE, Manhattan (PIX11) — Christmas Eve is just 24 hours before Christmas Day, but some people find it to be the right time to shop for their loved ones, either by choice or out of necessity.
For vendors, the last day can be among the best — if not the best — of the season for retail sales.
It was on full display at a variety of retail locations across the region on Wednesday, including the twin markets at Union Square.
Larissa Adamczyk, the manager of Sabyloo, a Union Square Holiday Market shop that sells socks and other items with images of dog and cat breeds on them, succinctly explained why crowds were thick, hours ahead of the holiday.
“Increase in last-minute shoppers,” she said. Her description was repeated by other vendors at the holiday market, which is the biggest of four such outdoor retail locations across the city, according to the Parks Department, which oversees them.
Another vendor, Sarella Suarez, who sells jewelry from her kiosk at the market, said that consistently over her 13 years operating her small business at the holiday venue, last-minute customers have been a key part of her business.
Lauren Bachman spoke about the purchase from Sarella that she’d just completed, as well as why she’d made it with less than 12 hours to go before the holiday began.
“I bought a bracelet for my mom, but also got one for myself,” Bachman said, “so we’ll have matching bracelets.”
“It’s hard to come to places like this,” she continued, in explaining her late-in-the-season purchase, “because they get so packed.”
She’s one type of last-minute shopper. Another is Megaera Regan, who’d thought she was done with all of her shopping, until she happened to see something at the market — socks — for her entire cat-loving family.
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“This is for Casey, my almost daughter-in-law,” she began, as she pulled pair after pair out of her shopping bag. “This is for Paul, he has two cats now,” she said, and continued to show a half-dozen pairs of socks she’d bought.
Union Square is home to the city’s largest farmers’ market, which attracts last-minute shoppers like Omer Bensaadon.
He’d just purchased a bouquet of artisanally dried flowers when he spoke with PIX11 News.
“I ordered ahead,” he joked about his last-minute purchase.
He was beyond reproach, though, for the gift he’d bought for his girlfriend’s mother, in the afternoon of Christmas Eve.
“It’s my first Christmas,” he explained. “I’m Jewish, so I haven’t done this whole thing.”
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Meanwhile, at the holiday market near Herald Square, there was another large crowd of shoppers on Wednesday evening. That market is across the street from Macy’s flagship store, which the company says is the world’s largest department store. At places like it and at the holiday market, as well as at locations like them across the Tri-state, sales have been moderate this season, according to the National Retail Federation and other retail sales monitors.
However, they reported that sales on Super Saturday—the Saturday before Christmas—picked up markedly.
That’s consistent with what was evident at all of the retailers PIX11 News encountered on Christmas Eve, including at Makeshift Accessories. It’s a business in the Union Square Holiday Market that creates fashion accessories out of discarded high-quality metals and other substances.
Greenwood Champ is one of its artisans. He manages the business’s kiosk.
“Last couple days have been crazy,” he said. “We had one guy buy $2,000 worth of stuff, just in one grab.”
Champ said that he and the business owner have driven down every November from Northfield, Minnesota, to sell their wares at Union Square. The holiday market is open for six weeks prior to Christmas. Profits are so strong, he said, that they have every intention of returning next year, their seventh at the market.
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