Local malls bustle with last-minute holiday shoppers Linda Farley of New Franken purchases 'stocking stuffers' from Shirley Tanck of Door County Sisters' Sweets on Sunday at Bay Park Mall (photo by Tina Gohr).. By Jessica La Plante News-Chronicle While a Monday-night Packers game might have translated to a slow weekend for local sports bars, for Green Bay malls, it meant booming business as thousands of holiday shoppers took time out from their weekend routine of football-watching to do some last-minute gift-buying. Merchants at the Simon Bay Park Square mall were kept busy Sunday as nearly 40,000 people flocked to the Ashwaubenon complex, a phenomenon the mall's marketing director attributed to a Monday-night Packers game. "Although we had some busy days already, this weekend was by far the busiest," marketing director Laurie Van Dalen said. "(When) there's not a Packers game, it makes a big difference." Van Dalen said customer traffic on Saturday "averaged in the 40,000-range," and indicated that Sunday's turnout was on track to meet or exceed that figure. For local merchants, the weekend blitz was nothing short of a Christmas miracle, as everyone from volunteer gift-wrappers to confectionary store owners benefited from the surge of last-minute shoppers. Laurie Schroeder, a volunteer gift-wrapper for the Pulaski High School Choir, was busy wrapping countless gift boxes on Sunday to help raise money for her daughter's choral group. She said she had tended the gift-wrapping station for only an hour and had already wrapped more than a dozen gifts for a single customer. "It's such a nice day and there's no Packers game, so now's the time to get your shopping done," Schroeder said, adding that only a week ago, the fund-raising booth would have seen about three customers per shift. Dan Delfosse, owner of Door County Sister Sweets, also spent the weekend on his toes. Only instead of wrapping boxes, he was filling them with holiday sweets for the scores of shoppers who visited his confectionary stand at the Bay Park Square mall. "When the weather's nice and there's no Packers game, that helps us a lot," Delfosse said. "Last weekend - during the Packers' game - it was just slow. You wouldn't think (the game) affects us, but it does." Katrina Schulz, a sales associate for Vander Zanden Diamond Jewelers, said the jewelry store saw more than its share of male clientele Sunday, something she chalked up to the warm weather and Monday-night game. "Primarily, a lot of the people coming here today have been men," Schulz said, adding that the turnout on Sunday was busier than most weekends. One local shopper who decided to take a spur-of-the-moment trip to buy jewelry at the mall was 27-year-old Jason Mianecki of De Pere. He said the football schedule was a factor in putting Christmas shopping on his Sunday afternoon itinerary. "There was nothing else to do, so I came (to the mall) with dad," Mianecki said, explaining that he planned to get all his shopping done in a one-day sweep. While holiday shopping was an impromptu decision for some Green Bay residents, others had planned the weekend excursion long in advance. Ruth Bishop of Oconto said she intentionally staggered her holiday gift-buying sprees around the Packers' game schedule. "We looked at the Packers' schedule and said we could finish up today because we wouldn't have to rush back (for the game)," Bishop said, adding that she has spent every Saturday this month shopping for her 17 family members. Lew Boyd, a 55-year-old father of three from Keshena, also viewed shopping as the perfect substitute to watching Sunday afternoon football. Boyd said he commuted all the way from Keshena to Bay Park Square to help his youngest daughter get into the holiday spirit. "My daughter really likes to go shopping in Green Bay, and that's why I'm here," Boyd said, adding that "it's very convenient that there's no Packers game until (Monday) night ... I was afforded an opportunity to come out and do a little splurging."