Last-minute shoppers crowd local stores

Slippers. iPods. Creepy crawling bug games.

Whatever their holiday gifting ambitions, Sonoma County shoppers hit stores with force on Wednesday, making the most of deep discounts and extended store hours as the clock ticked down the final shopping days before Christmas.

Retailers worked to keep up with demand during what many consider to be the biggest sales week of the year. And many shoppers found themselves at the stores simply because they were running out of time to find gifts. Many merchants will stay open late tonight to help last-minute shoppers cross off their lists.

"It's getting busier and busier," said Chas Stanley, general manager for the Best Buy store in Santa Rosa. "I think there's a little part of people that thinks that if you wait and wait you get a better deal."

The store has been offering discount prices for weeks, and at this point shoppers are mostly buying portable items like iPods or cameras, Stanley said. Kindles have been selling out every day, but the store is continually restocking the item.

Carrie Taylor of Santa Rosa juggled a car radio for her son and a "Glee" themed karaoke game for her daughter as she purposefully made her way through Best Buy.

"I'm trying to race against all the people here in the parking lot," Taylor said. "It took me about 45 minutes to get here."

Indeed, traffic was crawling on Santa Rosa Avenue Wednesday afternoon. In the parking lot outside Sports Authority, cars snaked around each other like children in a poorly coordinated dance performance.

At Kohl's, Lori Phelps shopped with her daughter Rachel for grab-bag gifts, and chose a set of place mats decorated with gingerbread men from a rack of Christmas-themed kitchen items marked 70 percent off. Sale signs were posted on racks throughout the store, and a banner over a collection of Food Network items declared "Now is the best time to shop."

"It's nice, because things are on sale and there are good discounts," Phelps said.

Locally-owned stores also were enjoying the last-minute purchases.

"It's the busiest time of the year in the toy industry," said John Goehring, co-owner of Toyworks in Santa Rosa. Toyworks is keeping its doors open later and offering discounts and rewards for shoppers. He said sales have improved compared to last year.

"Games in particular are very popular this year, and I think part of it is because people want to get the socialization back into kids, interacting with the family."

At nearby Toys "R" Us, Jonah and Kim Loop of Sebastopol pondered a Creepy Crawler Bug Maker for their son Kalib, 7. They already bought his main gifts, but were looking for "volume" to add to the pile of gifts under the tree.

"We tend to try to buy things that you can build or make things," Jonah Loop said. "You can smash it, you can fill it up with goo, you can do all sorts of things with it."

Santa Rosa Plaza was choked with traffic. Shoppers at Macy's waited in lines to pay for pea coats and pull-over sweaters, while others consulted confidants by cell phone before purchasing gifts during the store's one-day sale.

Fabian Delvillar of Petaluma said he came to shop when he heard about the sales.

"I don't know why I didn't come before," he said as he checked out a cropped black Calvin Klein sweater with studded shoulders.

Coddingtown Mall was less chaotic, but still busier than usual, with the parking lot full even around the empty Gottschalks store.

Inside, a lone child rode a motorized train ride around a Christmas scene. Several families waited in line to pose for a photo with Santa.

Annette Rowland, 34, bought a bake-and-carry pan for her day care provider at Kitchen Collection. She said she came to the mall to shop at Old Navy, and was happy to find the kitchen shop, which opened recently as a temporary store.

"We're getting cleaned out, totally," said Sharon Simmons, store manager at Kitchen Collection. "I feel a little sad that we don't have as many things as we'd like for customers. I mean, who runs out of garlic presses when you have four kinds?"

For the truly last-minute shoppers, both malls will be open from 8 a.m. until 11 p.m. on Thursday, but will close at 6 p.m. on Friday, Christmas Eve. Best Buy will be open 8 a.m. to 11 p.m. on Thursday and 7 a.m. to 7 p.m. on Friday.