Forest Hills: Your Last Minute Shopping

Christmas Day is around the corner and retailers on Austin Street and in the malls on Queens Boulevard are keeping their doors open and their promotions set up to the final hours of the shopping season.

On Austin Street, where stores rely heavily on the busy street traffic, retailers like the new Toys R Us Express, , and Men's Warehouse have tacked on at least an hour to accommodate any last-minute influx of business.

Toys R Us Express opened in November to catch the season's shopping activity on Austin Street and plans to close in mid-January once it's over, but manger Phillip Cortez says that business has been very good, and there's a possibility the toy store could be here to stay.

"Customers have told us they want us to stay here, you know, because there isn't really another toy store on this street, and people don't have to get in their cars and drive to the mall," said Cortez.

Toys R Us Express will be open 9 a.m. to 10 p.m. through Christmas Eve, and the hotter toy items this season will have the biggest price cuts. Cortez said the most popular toys this year are toys based off the Japanese manga series Beyblade, zhu zhu pets, Bakugan action figures, and the classic Barbie doll.

The last of the last-minute shoppers may be disappointed since the toy store's last shipment before Christmas was cancelled, according to Cortez. Some of the more popular toys may not stay on the shelves come Christmas Eve.

Men's Warehouse has added an hour before their usual closing time, and is continuing its promotion that includes a buy-one-get-one deal with anything in the store.

Some of the clothing retailers on Austin Street, which include Men's Warehouse and , are experiencing lower Christmas shopping traffic than they'd hoped, and are offering promotional sales that would either have ended in December or started in January.

The bigger chain retailers like Ann Taylor Loft, seem to be fairing well on Austin St despite the continuing economic woes. One of Loft's managers, Jessica Creary, says the regulars have kept coming during the holidays and the extra effort to entice the higher shopping traffic has been successful.

"This season has been promos, promos promos," said Creary. The store's 40% off entire purchases will remain until Christmas—they will be open 9 am until 6 pm on Christmas Eve.

For the graveyard shift shoppers, certain stores at the Queens Center mall will be open 24 hours from Wednesday until 6 pm on Christmas Eve, including Macy's, Armani Exchange, Champs Sports, American Eagle, while H&M and Metro PCS will be open 24 hours only on Thursday.