Last-Minute Shoppers Clog Stores, Malls : Holidays: Those who put off their missions find long lines and dwindling supplies of merchandise--and patience.

Aisles filled with glittering gifts were crammed Christmas Eve with credit-card slingers and nail biters before the last sales were rung and the final bows tied as stores closed.

“Everything I want is gone,” said Ron Gilmore of Oxnard as he stood in front of a May Co. cashier in Thousand Oaks, charging more than $100 worth of gifts.

In the end, Gilmore settled on something he didn’t really want--a mohair sweater--for his wife and decided to call it a day.

“I’m done,” he said, his arms loaded with gifts. “I’m going home.”

Throughout the day, shoppers bought cookbooks, expensive bottles of perfume, tacky ties and even wigs to surprise loved ones. Others slogged through long lines and waited glumly at tangled gift-wrapping counters before giving up.

Gilmore was one of the lucky ones who got away long before department stores closed at 6 p.m. As the Christmas countdown continued, customers became short-tempered as they competed for the attention of harried clerks.

At a Sears, Roebuck store in Thousand Oaks, shoppers desperate to have pens and bracelets engraved yelled and drummed their fingers to persuade clerks to work more quickly.

“This one lady tried to bribe me to engrave something,” said Maribel Ruiz, 20, as she engraved a business-card case a customer ordered the previous evening. “She said it was her last gift.”

Wigs were a hot last-minute buy.

Rose Wedermann, owner of the Oaks Wigs store, said Christmas Eve shoppers sometimes buy two or three wigs for themselves and friends.

Pointing to styles reminiscent of Eva Gabor and Farrah Fawcett, she said, “People want to look different over the holidays. Men buy them for grandma, a sister-in-law, a sister, a mother.”

Toupees also are available. Unfortunately, shoppers have to be certain before spending $150 to $350 on a wig or hairpiece. They aren’t returnable, she said.

Despite tough times, the Toys R Us store in Thousand Oaks was jammed with buyers. Store security guard Hannibal Safar watched shoppers at the entrance and shook his head.

“Inside here, there’s no recession,” he said as shopping carts full of toys rolled past him. “There’s more money going through here than the banks.”

The busiest store at the Buenaventura Mall in Ventura was Waldenbooks, where long lines of shoppers waited to pay for their gifts.

Bart Kennedy, 22, was buying his last present, a copy of “Scarlett,” the best-selling sequel to “Gone With the Wind.”

“It’s a guilt gift because I found out my roommate bought me a present,” said Kennedy, standing in line with 17 people.

Bookstore manager Lisa Yanover said frantic shoppers can always get away with giving a book, especially if times are tough.

“I’ve sold a lot of books on how to start your own business, how to keep out of debt, how to stay out of debt, how to get through the tough times,” she said. “A paperback costs $4 or $5. It’s expensive to go out, and so they are buying books because it’s a form of entertainment.”

Because of a recent move from Northern California, shopper Betty Davis had little money to spend for the holidays. At a K mart in Ventura, Davis pored over racks of bilingual religious plaques searching for a present that would suit her sister-in-law.

“I don’t know my sister-in-law that well,” Davis said. Finally, her eyes brightened when she picked up a plaque embellished with a prayer and a picture of a sailor. “Look, how about this?”

Nearby, Davis’ friend Diane Garza clutched a pair of T-shirts imprinted with two hugging bears and the words “Your Cave or Mine?”

“We’ve been shopping three hours, and this is all we’ve got,” Garza moaned.

K mart assistant manager Larry Sturtz said the pace of business was relatively slow all day, but picked up dramatically only hours before closing. Even as K mart warned shoppers that only five minutes were left in the shopping day, many were still roaming the aisles.

“Everybody was waiting until the last minute, but they’re not spending much,” said Sturtz, as he pointed customers toward aisles of batteries and remote-control cars.

Barbara Mix said she spent less money this year because she lost her job as a production planner in February. She now works part time.

All year long, Mix combed the store racks looking for deals. During her lunch hour, she strode briskly through the Sears store in Thousand Oaks hunting for markdowns but left without buying anything.

“I’m cheap,” she said. “I always shop at sales. I’ll start again right after Christmas Day.”