BRAINERD — It’s Super Saturday in the retail shopping world and traditionally one of, if not, the busiest shopping day of the holiday season.
It’s the last Saturday before Christmas and a popular day for shoppers to complete their gift lists — in store and online. And a good time for those who don’t want to risk shipping to check the local retail options.
At Brekken’s in downtown Brainerd, this is the second Christmas season after moving to Laurel Street from the Westgate Mall.
“Sales are strong,” said owner Isaac Brekken on Thursday. “Traffic is up, and we really enjoy being part of the downtown community. We enjoy having windows and sunshine. So yeah, things are going real well.”
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
The National Retail Federation reported a record 203 million consumers shopped during the five-day holiday weekend with Thanksgiving, Black Friday, Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday.
An estimated 158.9 million consumers plan to shop on the last Saturday before Christmas, according to the
released recently by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. The figure is up from 157.2 million shoppers last year and surpasses the previous record of 158.5 million in 2022.
“As the final Saturday before Dec. 25, Super Saturday is a significant shopping event for both consumers and retailers,” said NRF Vice President of Industry and Consumer Insights Katherine Cullen in a news release. “This year’s event falls only five days before the Christmas holiday, and consumers will shop across retailers and channels in search of the final gifts on their lists and other holiday items they need to complete a memorable holiday season.”
Brekken, who bought the business from his father, Bob, followed in the family business after a career in photojournalism in Las Vegas working primarily for the New York Times, Associated Press and Getty. When he was a boy, he made bows with a crank machine.
Brekken and his wife moved back to the Brainerd lakes area to raise their family here.
Clothing or accessories are the top gift item from the National Retail Federation’s holiday consumer survey, easily outpacing the other top five categories of toys, gift cards, books or other media and personal care or beauty items. Downtown Brainerd stores and Baxter shopping centers offer clothing shopping options.
Brekken’s was able to expand to include Ugg apparel in the last year since the store moved. The store has footwear and clothing across price points. Brekken said they added a Minnesota company called Waggle, which is known for its popularity and affordability. They have soft Ugg robes and Ugg Tasman slippers as well as sweatshirts that have been popular items. Brekken said the Ugg robe sales have been a trend so far this season, which they keep reordering and just got another shipment in. For Brekken that might be the biggest surprise of the season so far.
“The robes are flying off the hooks,” he said. “… People are really enjoying them. I was kind of surprised by that.”
Renee Richardson / Brainerd Dispatch
From consumers, Brekken said he hears good things about the store — its inventory, brands and layout — and more about prices and the economy in general.
“We definitely, you know, just talking to customers, we hear more that they’re watching,” Brekken said. “They watch where their dollars are going. And thankfully, many of our customers are saying that they want to shop local and want to support local business.”
Brekken said thankfully their customers from the mall followed them downtown and they’ve had new customers just from the foot traffic, which is exciting to see. Comments have included those who didn’t know the store was there downtown. Brekken said foot traffic is picking up.
“I think when people do make it downtown they often say ‘I’ll come back’ because we do have nice boutiques downtown. Getting the word out will take some time and hopefully that will grow,” Brekken said, noting revitalization of downtowns like Crosby as an example.
Brekken said a lot of people downtown are working very hard to build that kind of business community and working together.
With the Super Saturday shopping for this weekend strong for sales, Brekken noted their biggest day is always Dec. 23, and it’s bigger than Black Friday. But he said it’s not last minute until it’s 3 p.m. on Christmas Eve when they close for the holiday.
Looking ahead to the end of the year, 70% of consumers plan to shop the week immediately after Dec. 25. The top reasons include taking advantage of holiday sales and promotions (45%) and using gift cards (26%). Brekken said they are quite busy for the 10 days after Christmas as well with people spending cash gifts on what was on their own wish lists.
Courtesy / National Retail Federation
In January, he said they also regroup and look at spring deliveries of Tasman colors and keep rolling into the first of the year. He said he is confident in the winter this season with the good early start with snow.
The National Retail Federation reports Super Saturday shoppers are expected to embrace multiple channels this year, with nearly half, or 71.6 million (45%), planning to shop both in-store and online, up from 69.5 million (44%) in 2024. For the remainder who are planning to shop a single channel, 46.2 million people (29%) will do so exclusively in-store, while 41.1 million (26%) will shop online only.
“The top destinations where consumers plan to finish their shopping include online (46%), department stores (33%) and discount stores (26%),” the federation reported. “The top gifts shoppers have picked up so far include clothing and accessories (48%), toys (30%), gift cards (27%), books, music, movies, video games and other media (25%) and personal care or beauty items (23%).”
