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OREM — An Orem man does all his Christmas shopping on Christmas Eve after 7:30 p.m. because of a traumatic experience he had as a child.
When Ryan Lunt was 11-years-old, he went Black Friday shopping with his aunt. She sent him to pick up a $5 dollar toaster, and that's when Lunt said a defining moment of his life happened.
"I was just this little guy, and this evil woman punched me in the face to get a $5 toaster," Lunt said.
He said that experience made him "unoptimistic" about Christmas shopping in general.
Then when Lunt was serving a mission for the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, procrastination put him and his companion in the store on Christmas Eve at about 8 p.m. to buy some last minute Christmas gifts.
"It was perfect, because there was nobody in the store," Lunt said. "Ever since then I've gone (shopping) on Christmas Eve."
Lunt said that he has no problem getting what he needs by putting of his shopping, because people have already returned gifts they aren't going to give and all the "good stuff" is back on the shelves.
"Now I can cruise into Wal-Mart or Target and feel like a VIP and like I have the store to myself."
Lunt said the key to being in the "7:30 and after club" is being "very, very kind to the people who are working."
"If there isn't something you can't find and you're nice to them and understand where they're coming from, I've found that in a couple of instances they have found what I needed."
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Email: btracy@ksl.com
