Holiday Shopping - Extended Hours

It’s a fairly common practice for stores to extended their hours during the weeks leading up to Christmas, and stay open until 9pm, 10pm, 11pm, sometimes even midnight.

What was less obvious to me, was that opening extra early is also an amenity many offer.  And, I must say, from personal experience today — this seems to be an ideal way to shop!  I headed over to both Nordstrom and Macy’s downtown San Francisco early morning today, who each opened their doors at 8am.  The stores were fairly empty, sales people friendly and upbeat (the influence of morning coffee?!), clothes in their place on the racks, clean stores, and a fresh outlook.  Although I didn’t get to shop nearly as much as I wanted to today and it was purely an errand/returning trip, from now on, the 8am opening hour is how I’ll prefer to do any necessary shopping this time of year!

After doing a bit of research, it seems that most of the larger malls seem to offer these 8am opening times this week, or at least starting the 20th (Saturday).

• The West Coast seems to get a later start than the East, with The Grove and Beverly Center in LA opening at 9am throughout the week.
• In the Midwest, Mall of America starts opening at 8am on the 20th, along with Michigan Avenue Watertower which is open at 8am now through Christmas.
• On the East Coast, Woodbury Commons will remain opening at 9am, along with Columbus Circle shopping center, whereas Roosefield Field NY started the 8am opening on the 15th, and Short Hills will open doors at 8am from the 20th onward.

Biggest wow was Macy’s — several of their stores including Michigan Ave. and Herald Square are open from 7am-midnight now through Christmas!

My two cents — head to the stores before work, on the early side.  A much better experience!