Flying for the holidays? TSA says to skip wearing this item<\/a><\/p>\nFrom photos with Santa to meals in the food court, the mall stayed busy as customers searched for last-minute gifts. Some shoppers said crowds were lighter than expected.<\/p>\n
\u201cIt is not as busy as I expected,\u201d one shopper said, adding that many people may have already completed their shopping.<\/p>\n
Others admitted procrastination played a role.<\/p>\n
\u201cEverybody probably winding down \u2014 everybody mostly got their shopping done. I\u2019m one of the last-minute guys,\u201d another shopper said.<\/p>\n
Several shoppers said work schedules left little time to shop earlier in the season.<\/p>\n
\u201cI was working all the way up until two days ago. This was the first time I\u2019m really able to get out and get some final things,\u201d one shopper said, noting most purchases had already been made online.<\/p>\n
According to the National Retail Federation, holiday sales are expected to surpass $1 trillion for the first time this year. The group reports consumers plan to spend an average of $890 per person on gifts, food and decorations.<\/p>\n
Mall officials said security has been increased during the holiday rush, with additional patrols and a visible presence throughout the property as foot traffic increases.<\/p>\n
Some shoppers said despite the crowds, last-minute shopping can still be efficient with a plan.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere\u2019s not really a method \u2014 just know where you\u2019re going, get through the crowds and get out with enough time,\u201d one shopper said.<\/p>\n
La Palmera Mall is open until 10 p.m., closes at 6 p.m. on Christmas Eve, and will be closed on Christmas Day.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Holiday sales are expected to hit record highs across the nation. CORPUS CHRISTI, Texas \u2014 With Christmas just…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":99099,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[14],"tags":[155,157,156],"class_list":{"0":"post-99098","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-corpus-christi","8":"tag-corpus-christi","9":"tag-corpus-christi-headlines","10":"tag-corpus-christi-news"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99098","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=99098"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/99098\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/99099"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=99098"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=99098"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-tx\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=99098"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}