By Dan Marhsall

Last second shoppers likely to see bigger crowds than normal

Dec 23, 2016 | 11:27 AM

NANAIMO — December 23 may rival Black Friday as the biggest Christmas shopping day of the year, according to website businessinsider.com.

Another site, shoppertrak.com, has pegged the 23rd to be the third busiest shopping day of the year behind Black Friday and Boxing Day.

In Nanaimo, Woodgrove Centre General Manager Julia Dow is gearing up for a lot of mall traffic.

“I’m expecting the traffic to be pretty darn close to Black Friday and we’ll expect to match it again on Boxing Day,” said Dow. “We look to see around anywhere between 26,000 to 29,000 shoppers on a super busy day.”

Dow also believes this Christmas Eve won’t follow the usual shopping pattern.

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“It’s been awhile since we’ve had Christmas Eve on a Saturday. Typically the traffic tapers off pretty early, however, I’m expecting things to be going full tilt for most of the day on Christmas Eve as well,” she said.

Shoppers at the central island’s biggest mall will notice that hours of operation will shrink from 9:30 a.m. to 9 p.m. on Friday to 9:30 a.m. to 5 p.m. on Saturday.

Here are the expected top five shopping days for 2016 according to businessinsider.com and shoppertrak.com.

Business Insider

(Does not include Boxing Day)

• Friday Dec. 23
• Saturday Dec. 17
• Friday Nov. 25 (Black Friday)
• Thursday Dec. 22
• Wednesday Dec. 21

Shopper Trak

• Friday Nov. 25 (Black Friday)
• Monday Dec. 26 (Boxing Day)
• Friday Dec. 23
• Saturday Dec. 17
• Saturday Dec. 10