www.roanoke.com

Did you shop last weekend? I headed to Valley View Mall for a few hours on Saturday, but it didn’t seem to be as crowded as it has been in year’s past. I expected parking spaces to be scarce and long lines of traffic circling the Ring Road around the mall, since it was the second to last Saturday before Christmas.

Perhaps it was the looming freezing rain expected to fall late in the day on Saturday that kept people from venturing out to shop.

But my preliminary assessment appears close to what much of the nation experienced. The Associated Press reports today that the weekend’s sales were “lukewarm” across the country. Consumers in other states weathered winter storms as well.

And some analysts expect shoppers to delay their spending until next weekend, which is the weekend before Christmas. According to the National Retail Federation, the average person only had completed 36.4 percent of their holiday shopping at the end of November. So, people are guaranteed to be rushing to finish up their gift lists now.

Dec. 25 is a week and one day away. Are you done with your shopping yet?