As the desperation to finish off those gift lists builds, shoppers may want to turn to merchants off the beaten path as a source of the perfect present: About a third of Americans [image-nocss] have bought gifts for friends, family, and co-workers at drugstores (39%), supermarkets (34%), gas station or convenience stores (13%). Another 9% bought their gifts from street vendors, and very small percentage told Consumer Reports they had bought gifts at airports (4%) and even from a vending machine (1%).
With the countdown running to the 25th, more than half of the dawdlers (51%) think there's still plenty of time. Money concerns were cited as a key reason for their late start, but 21% are putting it off simply because they can't stand to shop.
"Many experts predicted 2010 would be the year of Internet shopping, with consumers taking to the keyboard instead of the stores because of the supposed great deals and multitude of free-shipping offers," said Consumer Reports' senior editor and shopping expert Tod Marks. "But all the buzz about the Internet commerce may have been overstated. To date, some 43% of consumers have shopped exclusively at walk-in stores for gifts, while only 3% shopped online exclusively."
Slackers who fail to finish their shopping in time have some explaining to do. According to the Consumer Reports poll, the most common way Americans try to smooth things over with those they've slighted are to promise a future gift or give an IOU (46%); shrug off the oversight as if it didn't happen (36%), concoct an excuse (31%), or re-gift a present the offender received from someone else (15%); 8% took the easy way out; they just avoided the other person, and 6% of scramblers admit to buying a last-minute gift they knew the receiver will want to return.
Many Americans (42%) say that they give more presents than they receive from others. Only 19% say they get more than they give.
When time is running out, gift cards become the go-to present for 43% of shoppers. Most people at least manage to make it to the store to pick up that gift card, however, one in five (20%) go online for an e-gift card, the ultimate choice for slow pokes. After gift cards, survey respondents cited cash (20%) as the most popular last minute gift to give.
If all else fails, last minute shoppers can opt for the gift of chance; 16% of Americans told Consumer Reports they give lottery or scratchoff tickets as gifts or stocking stuffers and 3% of shoppers say the lottery is their last minute go-to gift in a pinch.
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