Businesses fear losses as snow forced holiday shoppers to stay home

Hayden Densmore said she feels a sense of urgency when it comes to her holiday shopping list.

“I was hoping to get it all done in the weekend and that didn’t happen, so now I feel like everyone’s out and about trying to get it done,” she said.

As a local boutique, Lawrence says every day leading up to Christmas counts. The store was closed all day Sunday and half of the day Monday as a result of the storm.

“Sundays are usually busy days, it’s steady traffic. “We have a greater volume of sales than we do most days, other than Friday and Saturday, and we have a steady amount of people coming in and out of the store. That’s really where we capitalize,” she said.

Some work, some play: The people behind the snowfall statistics

By Tuesday, people had returned to the shops, which was a hopeful sign for owners.

“I just hope that we didn’t lose consumers to online shopping. That’s the only thing that would actually make the difference,” Lawrence said.

"I actually did do some online shopping," Densmore said. "I did a lot on a snow day just to kind of feel like I got something done."

Still, Densmore admitted there's something different about getting out and touching the products in stores, and that's what retailers are banking on for the next two weeks.

The National Retail Federation says holiday shopping is expected to be up 4.3 percent this year over last year.