NEW YORK—Many U.S. holiday shoppers, wary of spending time in stores during the latest surge of COVID-19 cases and nervous about packages not arriving before Christmas, were on a mission on Dec. 19: snatch up last-minute gifts fast or pick up online purchases in-store.
The “Super Saturday” before Christmas is traditionally the busiest day of the year for holiday purchases, and this year, online retail has been extra busy. But news reports about high-priority vaccine shipments have many Americans fretting that gift deliveries could be delayed this week.