BANGOR – Less than 48 hours until Christmas Eve with a practically untouched gift list, Barrett Brown of Palmyra was acting as if he had all the time in the world.

“Hey, you gotta eat, right?” said the college student, grinning as he finished a hamburger at the Bangor Mall food court.

Slowly sorting through a rack of black lingerie at Victoria’s Secret, Kit McCall of Hermon was similarly unruffled.

“Waiting till the last minute kind of makes things interesting,” said the young man who was looking for a gift for his girlfriend.

“I kind of enjoy the packed malls and busy streets,” he said.

Shoppers were out in full force Friday, trying to make up for lost time. But no one seemed to be pushing the panic button.

“I’m the world’s worst kind of procrastinator, I always have been and I guess I always will be,” Lauri McPherson cheerfully said as her 4-year-old daughter excitedly pulled her through the mall.

“And every year it’s the same thing,” the Bangor woman said.

But it wasn’t for lack of trying.

Soon after Thanksgiving, McPherson headed to Ames department store, determined to get a head start on her holiday shopping.

Dismayed by the long checkout lines, she decided it would be quicker to put the gifts on layaway.

“I meant well, but somehow I didn’t put aside as much as I thought,” McPherson said.

“So even though I started early, I’m finishing last.”

Meanwhile, merchants at the mall said the season had been good to them.

“It’s been wonderful – repeat customers are the key,” said Sharon Sleeper, who owns the free-standing Maine Porcelain with her husband, Richard.

Despite the abundance of last-minute customers on Friday, men in particular are learning to shop early, according to Sleeper.

“They’re the ones who spend money,” she said. “They’ve learned that if they come late it costs them more because [the expensive] items are all that’s left.”

Recent snowstorms also brought in more male shoppers, Sleeper pointed out.

“They know the women won’t be venturing out.”

Striding through the mall, Micah Thurston of Unity and Joe Bellerose of Troy emphasized that no way had they put off their Christmas shopping.

“We’d be bad husbands if we procrastinated,” Thurston said with a grin.

Purchasing the larger items weeks ago, the men needed only a few stocking stuffers, they said happily.

At Wilson’s Leather, sales associate Marie Cattelle said she just couldn’t help putting off her gift buying.

“When you work at the mall, you hate to shop,” she said.

Luckily, others didn’t feel the same. Wilson’s manager Brad Gracie said the store has experienced “huge increases” over the last several years.

“Leather’s all the fashion – it’s everywhere you look,” he said. “We can’t lose.”

Downtown merchants also were optimistic about this year’s holiday sales.

“The last two weeks have been amazing!” said Karina Pomroy, owner of Peruvian Link Co., which sells woolen garments and other South American items.

“Look – I have no stock left!” said Pomroy, who was about to leave for a shopping trip to Peru.

Business had been abysmal the first week of December, she recalled.

“I was close to tears, I couldn’t figure out what I was doing wrong,” she said. “After that, it was as though the stuff was flying off the shelves.”

Grasshopper Shop owner Rick Schweikert was happily wrapping a package in the back room Friday afternoon.

“It’s wild in here today, but then it always is this time of year,” said Schweikert, as he expertly coaxed a purple ribbon into a mass of curls.

While he hadn’t yet tallied this year’s figures, Schweikert is confident the extra Saturday between Thanksgiving and Christmas definitely will prove a boon.

But beyond the holiday excitement, people are feeling good about the regeneration that downtown is experiencing, particularly because of the soon-to-open Children’s Discovery Museum, according to Schweikert.

“There’s just a feeling that things are about to pop,” he said.

Across the street at Cadillac Mountain Sports, owner Brad Ryder agreed that the holiday season surely will usher in new life downtown.

“‘It’s nice when people come in and say, ‘we’re so glad you’re here,”‘ he said.

“We’re glad you’re glad!” he replies.