The holiday shopping rush is on in Thunder Bay.
With the number of shopping days until Christmas counting down, last minute gift buyers are heading out to cross items and names off their lists.
Intercity Shopping Centre marketing director Shannon Young said business is starting to increase with Christmas right around the corner.
“It’s been a slow start to the year, as it’s been for the past couple of years. But in the last week or two it’s picked up quite immensely, especially in the last week,” Young said.
The shopping centre extended their evening hours until 10 p.m. for much of the past week, and that has led to increased traffic as shoppers head out after dark.
It is expected to culminate this weekend, one of the busiest retail stretches of the entire year.
“The weekends have been a really busy time and then this weekend coming up will be the busiest shopping weekend of the year for us,” Young said.
Some stores in the mall are thriving, while others are seeing a bit of a dip compared to past years.
One business that is performing quite well inside the shopping complex is the Bath and Body Works store.
Store manager Kerri-Ann McCullough said their third Christmas in the city has been a busy one, and they are seeing quite a diversity in their customer base.
“It’s the place to be for the Christmas season. It’s a perfect gift giving destination,” McCullough said.
“We’ve had a lot of men in this week, and they normally come in on the 24th and that’s what we normally expect. We applaud them for shopping a little bit earlier.”
This is the first Christmas shopping season for Intercity with Target being a tenant in the mall. So far, the Minneapolis-based retailer is providing a boost at the south end of the mall, operating out of the former Zellers location.
“The traffic counts on that end of the mall have increased since Target has been here and they are busy with lineups,” Young said.
