If you can wait to buy whatever is on your holiday shopping list, the best deals may still be ahead of you.

The National Retail Federation says that Saturday, Christmas Eve, will be the biggest shopping day of the season.

More than 158 million consumers are expected to shop on the last Saturday before Christmas this year, according to the annual survey released today by the National Retail Federation and Prosper Insights & Analytics. This figure is approximately 10 million more than last year’s expected number of Super Saturday shoppers and the highest number since NRF first started tracking this data in 2016.

“Consumers have been shopping in record numbers this year, purchasing holiday items for friends and loved ones,” NRF President and CEO Matthew Shay said. “With Super Saturday falling eight days before Christmas, retailers are prepared to help shoppers fulfill their last-minute purchases that will make this holiday season memorable.”

(National Retail Federation)

Waiting may pay off with steeper discounts. Adam Davis, managing director at Wells Fargo told CNN:

“All of these dynamics will benefit consumers because retailers are so overstocked,” he said. “There’s going to be a big push this weekend by retailers that have excess inventory to sell, and sell at any cost, because they want to start 2023 leaner and cleared out of the glut, especially if the economic headwinds get worse.”

It’s also costly for retailers to sit on an oversupply of merchandise for too long. Retailers who store merchandise in their own warehouse and distribution centers have a finite amount of space to work with, with some wiggle room to accommodate excess inventory. But costs add up if more space is needed for a protracted glut that they can’t quickly clear out.

Also, unsold products lose value over time. That’s especially true with fashion clothing as savvy shoppers won’t buy last year’s style if the trend has passed. Stores are then forced to heavily discount, which impacts profitability.

Well ahead of the final full weekend before Christmas, stores this year were already offering discounts of 50% to 60% off, and tacking on free shipping for online orders.

“I’ve studied the holiday season for 20 years and haven’t seen discounting so dramatic,” said Ross Steinman, professor of consumer behavior at Widener University in Chester, Pennsylvania.

“Retailers are very nervous,” he said. “The clock is ticking, and they know they have to maximize every opportunity now to get consumers to make purchases.”

Storm may snarl last-minute shipping and holiday travel 

Forecasters are using the term “bomb cyclone” to describe the Arctic blast heading our way this week. A bomb cyclone – whose name comes from the meteorological term “bombogenesis,” or “explosive cyclogenesis” – is a low-pressure system where the central pressure drops at least 24 millibars within 24 hours. (Popular Science explains further.)

The weather may be disruptive enough that some airlines are offering change waivers to keep you from getting stranded. Shippers like UPS and FedEx are warning that last-minute deliveries could get delayed.

Accuweather warns, “The intensifying storm will coincide with a surge of frigid air that will send temperatures to bone-chilling levels through the holiday weekend and could be one of the most intense and prolonged periods of Arctic air in decades during Christmastime. ”

Major travel hubs including Chicago, St Louis, Detroit, Pittsburgh, Atlanta and Nashville could get snow.

(AccuWeather)

Boston, New York, Philadelphia and Charlotte, North Carolina, also will probably see travel delays Thursday and Friday. 

(AccuWeather)

United Airlines, American Airlines and Delta Air Lines are waiving change fees and fare differences for people who are willing to alter their plans to avoid the inevitable problems. Experts say you should make the changes now because once flights start canceling, there will be an avalanche of people all trying to grab very few seats. 

You can monitor the mounting problems at airports around the country by visiting the FlightAware Misery Index. 

Across the country, drivers may want to stay on top of changing road conditions by using 511 travel information services. The phone services now operate in most states. (Click the map below links to information from each state or city that operates the service.)

(U.S. Department of Transportation)

Will extreme cold weather affect electric car batteries?

This week’s extreme cold will be an interesting test for new electric cars and trucks. Certainly, cold weather zaps some power from the batteries that power electric cars. Here are some range estimates for electric cars in winter versus in summer, notice some models lose around 100 miles of range in cold weather, which could be a real pain if you are taking a long trip or if you get stuck in ice- and snow-storm traffic.

(RecurrentAuto.com)

RecurrentAuto explains why electric cars lose some of their range in cold weather:

Winter range loss occurs for a few reasons. We cover them in detail in our hot and cold temperature article but the two main contributing factors are chemical and mechanical.

Chemical and physical reactions in the battery occur more slowly in cold temperatures. This reduces the EVs power. Cold temperatures inhibit chemical reactions and act as resistance that slows down the physical processes. 

Electric cars have to make their own heat. The internal combustion engines (ICE) that power traditional cars are surprisingly inefficient. All of the energy that ICE cars don’t use to propel them forward is turned into “waste heat,” which is typically just lost energy. In cold weather, however, ICE cars redirect this waste heat from the engine to warm the cabin. On the other hand, an EV has a much more efficient motor which does not generate as much heat. In the cold, available motor heat is routed to warm the battery itself, meaning that cabin heating requires a power source. Cabin heaters generally draw from the high voltage battery, reducing how much battery is left for driving. 

The federal budget bill now includes changes to the Electoral Count Act

Congress has a Friday deadline to pass a new federal budget and, as often happens at such a time, politicians are cramming all sorts of things into the budget bill. One of the most important additions is a change, or really more of a clarification, to the Electoral Count Act. You can read the bill here, but the summary says:

The bill specifies that the choice of electors must occur in accordance with the laws of the state enacted prior to election day.

Additionally, the bill identifies each state’s governor (unless otherwise identified in the laws or constitution of a state in effect on election day) as responsible for submitting the certificate of ascertainment identifying the state’s electors. Further, the bill provides for expedited judicial review for any action brought by an aggrieved presidential or vice-presidential candidate arising under the U.S. Constitution or U.S. laws with respect to the issuance or transmission of such a certificate.

The bill revises the framework for the joint session of Congress to count electoral votes and make a formal declaration of which candidates have been elected President and Vice President. Among other changes, the bill (1) specifies that the role of the Vice President during the joint session shall be ministerial in nature, and (2) raises the objection threshold in Congress to at least one-fifth of the duly chosen and sworn members of both the House of Representatives and the Senate.

Both Republican and Democrat Senate leaders support the bill that is aimed at preventing another Jan. 6-like debacle. The Washington Post explains:

The Senate and House bills differ chiefly in how much they would change the threshold necessary for members of both chambers to object to a state’s results. Currently, objecting to a state’s electors requires only one member each from the House and Senate. The House bill would raise that requirement to at least one-third of the members of both the House and Senate, while the Senate version would raise the requirement to at least one-fifth of the members of both the House and Senate.

Unlike the Senate bill, the House bill — which passed in a 229-203 vote — saw little support from GOP lawmakers. Only nine Republicans joined Democrats in voting for it, and none of those nine will be members of Congress next year — either because they lost their primaries or chose to retire. Several of the Republicans who opposed the bill, including House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy (Calif.), criticized it as unconstitutional.

Just to recap, in the days ahead we have a historic winter storm on the way, thousands of migrants are arriving at the southern border while the Supreme Court considers a critical immigration rule change, the federal budget expires in a week, and a congressional committee is suggesting a former U.S. president be criminally prosecuted. But on the bright side, if you can wait until the last minute to shop for Christmas, you will find deep discounts as stores try to clear their shelves. Also, you won’t be complaining about slow news days over the holidays.