'Tis the season to go shopping, many stores in Bakersfield’s Valley Plaza Mall are slashing prices to bring customers in.
"For me there are good prices today because I went to Tulare too to check the prices and it's better right here," says Rosa Hernandez at the mall.
Hernandez stocked up on shoes and clothes for her family and says she always shops on Christmas Eve.
"Today, I’m not working, I have all day for me,” she says. “And this is my reason and why always I choose this day to come."
Shoppers had to beat the crowds in order to grab a deal.
"It was pretty busy,” says Guadalupe Arenas with three shopping bags in her hands. “The lines were full."
So where can you go when the mall closes and you still need to shop?
Rite-Aid has toys and treats and closes at 7 p.m. on Christmas Eve. Wal-Mart and Burlington Coat Factory close at 8 p.m. followed by Target at 9 p.m., CVS at 10 p.m. and Walgreens stays open until midnight.
"In this area, everybody's pretty much a last-minute shopper,” says Ryan Trotter, a sales representative for Sprint at Valley Plaza. “So today's the day everybody comes, and we have some great deals going on here too."
While customers enjoy later store hours, store employees often catch the bad end of the candy cane.
"You have to sacrifice a little bit, trips and everything,” he says. “But at the end of the day, it's worth it and at the end of the month, you can have a lot, so it's worth it at the end of the day."
