Get Busy on Your Christmas Shopping!

Many Bay Area residents (including the Palo Alto Patch Guest Editor) appear to have much of their holiday shopping left to do just a week before Christmas, according to a survey released Monday by Visa, Inc.          

The Foster City-based company polled adults by phone nationwide and within the Bay Area about their remaining shopping plans and budgets.    

The results found that nearly 80 percent of Bay Area residents still have gifts to buy and will spend an additional $352 for those items, Visa spokesman Jason Alderman said.          

"People are now officially in panic zone shopping time," Alderman said.(Editor’s note: no kidding!)          

The Bay Area leads in the nation in procrastinating on their shopping. Seventy-three percent of all Americans still have gifts to buy, Alderman said.          

Although Alderman said the survey didn't draw any conclusions about why more Bay Area residents leave shopping to the last minute than others in the country, he theorized that people here are too busy.          

"This is where we put the 'multi' in multitask," he said.          

To avoid a holiday hangover from overspending which late shoppers are prone to do, Alderman advised making a budget and sticking to it.          

He said the credit card company advises people to spend no more than 1.5 percent of their total household income on all Christmas expenditures down to the food shopping, gas money and higher electricity bill for holiday lights.          

There is a small group of consumers who have yet to even take out their shopping lists, Alderman said.          

Sixteen percent of adults nationwide haven't bought a single gift yet for the holidays, he said.

Editor's unfinished shopping list: Mom, age 83. Geeky, engineer husband: age 62. College-educated, Air Force Pilot son: age 24. (Yes ladies, he's adorable and he's available.) Suggestions welcome. Add them to comments section below. 

--Bay City News

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