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As the Christmas season approaches many family’s are out doing there Christmas shopping. But more and more people have taken a different approach to shopping this year.

Online shopping has become even more popular since many family’s are choosing to stay inside because of  concerns over the spread of of COVID 19. Along with this, many apps have expanded their reach since the start of the pandemic.

Amazon is a big one, considering it has just about anything that could appear on one’s Christmas wish list. Amazon sales this year have risen sharply since the second quarter, and in the third quarter the company reported 37 percent revenue increase to more the $96 billion.

The BluePrint spoke with several teachers and alumni from Bellwood-Antis and found that for them, like most everyone else. online shopping has been the way to go this year, as their amount of in person shopping has decreased.

For Onda McCaulley, her shopping experience was definitely different, especially on Black Friday, when she gets most of her Christmas shopping done. Due to COVID restrictions this year, stores were limited during Black Friday, but it also meant they only opened Friday morning instead of Thanksgiving Night, which created a different experience for McCaulley and her friends. Over the last few years, she said, she has increased the amount of online shopping she does because of time crunches during the Christmas season, but this year overall she was at her highest amount of making purchases virtually.

“Online shopping can be convenient, yet I enjoy spending time with friends when we go shopping,” said McCaulley, who thought shopping in stores created many memories.

Bellwood-Antis sophomore Emalee Strong, who has been online shopping since the beginning of quarantine, has seen changes in shopping from the beginning to know. She finds that online shopping is very effective due to restrictions on stores, but it can be a challenge because certain items are really back ordered and shipping tends to be delayed much later than it normally would.

Overall Emalee has increased the amount of online shopping she has done in previous year, but said she prefers to shop in stores because online shopping can present the obstacle do not finding the right item in the right size or color. While shopping in stores you have easy solutions to both obstacles.

B-A alumni Tc McCaulley (Decker) has had her own set of challenges this year with online shopping. So far this year she has done all her shopping online, and since ‘Black Friday’ wasn’t really much of a success this year tú put her on a major set back. Her biggest challenge this year was that smaller stores have a smaller capacity to permit patrons in stores, and therefore you have to wait longer. For Tc. time is usually an issues because of her tight schedule.

This makes shopping online a viable option for her, so long as certain conditions are met.

“Online shopping is better as long as I don’t have to pay for shipping,” said Tc.

Mrs. Dawn Frank, a high school math teacher at Bellwood-Antis, said that she likes to shop in stores, but during COVID she has preferred to not be in stores around crowds of people, which has set her holiday shopping back. Since she has not been able to shop much in person she has done most of shopping online through Amazon and specialty stores.

Mrs. Frank’s two sons who are 16 and 20 do most of their own shopping for her, but she likes to surprise them with a few gifts on her own. So despite all the restrictions she plans to go out this weekend for a few gifts.