Countywide : Late Shoppers Flood Stores in the Area

Last-minute Christmas Eve shoppers jammed grocery stores, malls and discount outlets Thursday in a rush to buy for the last few people on their shopping lists.

Some hit the stores at the eleventh hour by design, while others were there on orders from the top.

“My boss sent me,” said Renee Flabel, who stood in a line of 10 people at See’s Candy in The Oaks shopping center in Thousand Oaks shortly before its 5 p.m. closing. “I finished my shopping a long time ago. He waited until the last minute.”

Meanwhile, Ron Grote, a 27-year-old paramedic from Thousand Oaks, said he shopped for four people in 39 minutes and was finished by 5 p.m.

“I always do this at the last minute,” he said.

Last-minute shoppers also mobbed The Esplanade mall in Oxnard, where the parking lot resembled slow-moving urban intersections at rush hour.

In Ventura, the Trader Joe’s food store had lines so long that shoppers were confused about which checker they were headed for.

“I’m not sure which line I’m in,” said one woman with a full grocery cart.

Outside the Mervyn’s store in Ventura, Betty Sanchez and her daughter Alix were leaving late Thursday afternoon after a day of shopping.

“I work until 6 p.m. and by the time I get home and cook dinner, it’s already late,” she said. “We’ve been staying out shopping late until 11 p.m. all week.”

At The Baseball Card Connection at the Telephone Road Plaza in Ventura, co-owner John Franklin said business was terrific Thursday.

“Today was our best day,” he said, laughing. “You know that glazed look that last-minute shoppers get? You can sell them anything.”

Ginger and Brian Taylor of Thousand Oaks stopped into the shop shortly before 5 p.m., looking for a little extra something for family and friends for whom they once believed they had finished shopping.

“We look at what we’ve got and say, ‘That’s not enough. They got us something really big last year,’ ” he said.

Rick Lyons, owner of Gold Coast Jewelers in Ventura, said his shop sold a lot of watches this year but fewer large or extravagant items.

“We’re just not seeing that type of spending this year,” he said. But last-minute shoppers filled his store and kept business steady on Thursday. One of those was Melody Neese, whose husband, Steve, works at the store.

“You always have to wait until that certain check comes in,” she said.