Click, then drive: Last-minute US holiday shoppers do curbside pickup

NEW YORK: Many US holiday shoppers, wary of entering stores during the latest surge of COVID-19, went from their computers, phones and other devices to their cars on the Saturday before Christmas to make last-minute gift purchases and then drive to the store to pick them up. Super Saturday is traditionally the busiest day of the year for holiday purchases, and this year online retail has been extra busy, and high-priority vaccine shipments have many Americans fretting that deliveries could be delayed this week. "The lines have gone from waiting to get inside the store to waiting to get your product brought outside the store," said Marshal Cohen, chief retail industry adviser at NPD Group. "That's what you'll see as the day goes on." US retailers are expected to ring in record sales, with over 150 million American shoppers slated to buy holiday gifts Saturday online or in-store, up by more than 2 million from last year, the National Retail Federation said on Thursday.

As coronavirus cases spike and some states enforce stricter mandates, most last-minute holiday shoppers will go online, the trade group said.

At King of Prussia Mall, the largest retail shopping space in the United States and owned by Simon Property Group, "It's absolutely dead," said Bill Park, a partner at Deloitte & Touche LP, at around 10:00 a.m. EST.