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This is the big last-minute shopping weekend for the holidays. In honor of this last weekend before Christmas, you may find amusing this video by J.C. Penney. It's titled Beware of the Doghouse.

The video is a humorous story about what happens to men who give their wives or significant others bad or inappropriate gifts. Here's more info about the campaign, which is meant to encourage men to shop at J.C. Penney for Christmas gifts.

And here's the latest from the National Retail Federation today. It reports that 20 percent of people have not begun their holiday shopping, and "millions" more have many names to check off their lists. The average person has completed 64.7 percent of their shopping, according to the federation.

This year, I seriously considered not sending Christmas cards. Like many people, I wanted to cut back my holiday budget. And paying for Christmas cards and postage really adds up.

I ended up mailing some cards (I'm stuck in tradition), but I reduced the recipient list and did not send as many as in years past.

It sounds like other people had the same idea. The U.S. Postal Services reports that the volume of mail is down this holiday season. Here's a story about it.

Locally, the Roanoke postal service said its mail volume has decreased 8 percent so far this month (from Dec. 6 to Dec. 26), compared with last year, according to Charlene Yeagley, a spokeswoman. This office processes mail from throughout the region, including Martinsville, Roanoke and the New River Valleys.

I'm interested in hearing from you. Did you send Christmas cards this year? Are you mailing as many packages to friends or family this year?

After a three and a half month hiatus, lunch and dinner now are being served again at The Isaacs Restaurant, an Eastern Mediterranean eatery on Memorial Avenue in Roanoke.

This Grandin Village restaurant reopened last week, after closing for an expansion and renovations. The Isaacs expanded into a neighboring building, a move that more than doubled its seating capacity. Robert Jewell, one of the owners and the general manager, told me that the restaurant now seats 126 people. There also are plans to offer outdoor seating.

Its menu is largely the same with a few new additions, such as tuna steak and baba ganoush.

The Isaacs hours are Monday through Thursday from noon to 10 p.m., Friday and Saturday from noon to 11 p.m. and Sunday from 5 p.m. to 9 p.m.

The five fewer days between Thanksgiving and Christmas this year finally are catching up with people. The National Retail Federation reported today that the average person had completed 47.1 percent of their holiday shopping by the second week of December. That's 10 percent less than the 52.6 percent who had finished their shopping by the same time last year.

The NRF survey also found that 41 million people have not even begun to shop for Christmas. The biggest procrastinators are men (20.7 percent) and people in the 35 to 44 year old category (20.9 percent). Only 8 percent of people have actually finished all of their shopping.

As suspected, fewer consumers are buying gift cards this year. According to the NRF, 24.3 percent of shoppers have purchased gift cards, compared with 30.2 percent last year.

Though I've begun Christmas shopping, I definitely feel like I'm in a mad dash until next week! Let me know your thoughts on this final week and a half of holiday shopping.

This week the first retailer at Roanoke County's Keagy Village will open its doors. Wednesday is opening day for nTelos, a wireless service provider based in Waynesboro. This will be nTelos' 10th store in the Roanoke Valley.

Some other shops are slated to open at this retail center that is under construction at the intersection of Keagy Road and Virginia 419. Dunkin Donuts appears poised to make its entrance there.

But Andy Rod, who is a franchise owner of this Dunkin Donuts location, said the shop will not open until the first quarter of next year. He told me that he's concerned about the unfinished parking lot at Keagy Village. The area surrounding the new Dunkin Donuts looks too much like a construction zone, he said.

"We want to make sure our guests feel comfortable," Rod told me.

He's planning to hire 20 employees for the new Dunkin Donuts.

Meanwhile, Firehouse Subs and Scottrade are two other retailers with plans to open at Keagy Village next year. 

Development of Keagy Village has been slow since the announcement of its coming in 2004. Some national retailers, including Starbucks, have bagged plans to locate there, and the center still lacks an anchor store. Keagy Village is expected to house 105,000 square feet of retail space and 25,000 square feet of office space.

If you're planning to do some last-minute Christmas shopping online, you may want to hold off until next Thursday.

Dec. 18 is free shipping day. On this day, a host of national retailers, including Macy's, Dell, The North Face and Sears, are offering free shipping on products with guaranteed delivery by Dec. 25.

Free shipping day was created by Luke Knowles, the founder of http://www.freeshipping.org/ to drum up online retail sales as Christmastime nears. Traditionally, online holiday shopping declines after Dec. 12.  Marketing free shipping later in the month is a strategy to raise holiday sales for online retailers, according to this Web site about free shipping day.

Check here find out which stores are offering this annual shipping freebie.

The Wall Street Journal reports that restaurant jobs are shrinking as eateries grapple with declining sales.  And though there is not specific research about restaurant tips decreasing, there are anecdotal reports from restaurants that patrons are leaving smaller tips for servers, according to the story.

What about you? Have you been leaving smaller restaurant tips lately? 

In the past few months, I've found myself choosing eateries where I'm not necessarily responsible for shelling out a large tip, such as ordering take-out or going to an eatery where you place a food order at the front counter, rather than relying on wait staff.

Here's news for a not-so-chilly day: Ben & Jerry's finally has opened its doors at Valley View Mall in Roanoke. The ice cream shop landed in a 673 square foot space, near the food court area, earlier this week. 

This space has housed several different retailers in the past, including a candy store.

In October, Ben & Jerry's opened a shop at the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg.

The economy continues to take its toll on the local marketplace, and the latest example is in the jewelry business.  Click here to read my story today about Glassner Jewelers' plans to close its stores, which include one in Roanoke County, one in Staunton and one in Charlottesville.

The poor spending climate is particularly difficult for jewelry retailers, because they sell higher-priced merchandise that’s considered discretionary, said Sheri Beveridge, an owner of Glassner. Jewelry isn’t necessarily a practical gift.

While at Glassner yesterday, I spoke with Rachel Schwiebert of Roanoke County. Aside from talking about what kind of jewelry she bought at the store’s going-out-of business sale, she also lamented about the closing of B.Moss, a women’s apparel chain that has locations at Roanoke’s Valley View Mall and at the New River Valley Mall in Christiansburg.

Schwiebert said she buys most of her pants at B.Moss, because they fit her right and are perfect for both dressy and casual occasions.
B.Moss' closing “is killing me,” she said.

There has been quite a bit of news in the past few months about retail closings nationally. The most notable so far in this region include the closing  of Ashley Furniture HomeStore and the upcoming closures of Steve & Barry’s, B.Moss and Glassner Jewelers stores. There are fears that more retailers will shut their doors next year.

Which stores, locally or nationally, that plan to close will you miss the most? And which retailers are you cheering on as the impact from the troubling economy  unfolds?

To follow up on our conversations about Ukrop's Super Market's performance in Roanoke, compared with other grocers, you may be interested to read the latest news about Kroger's national sales and profits.

The grocer's quarterly earnings were down 6 percent, though its sales rose 9 percent. According to the article, Kroger has weathered the economic downturn better than other national grocery retailers because of its heavy price-cutting for certain products.