Local retailers have had an ‘epic’ Christmas shopping season already. They expect more of the same this week.

Victoria’s Toy Station saw an “epic” number of shoppers last weekend, and is expecting more of the same during the last week before Christmas.

“It’s been an amazing [shopping] season,” says Victoria’s owner Katie Shoriak.

It’s not just the local Baton Rouge toy seller that is seeing a larger shopping season, the National Retail Federation is forecasting a turnout of 158.5 million shoppers this “Super Saturday,” the name given to the last Saturday before Christmas. That number is the highest expected turnout of any year since the organization began tracking data in 2016.

Shoriak says shoppers started buying early this season, some as early as Halloween.

She thinks that part of the reason for this year’s earlier-than-normal start to holiday shopping is due to customers’ fears of supply chain issues.

Of the 158.5 million shoppers expected nationwide this Saturday, 44.1 million (28%) reported that they plan to shop in stores and 72.2 million (46%) plan to do their shopping through a combination of online and in-store purchases.

“I think people are still really behind ‘shop local,’” Shoriak says. “That’s very refreshing because it’s scary being a small business during this time.”