Will People Get Their Gifts in Time for Christmas?

By Douglas A. McIntyre Updated Jan 12, 5:44AM EST · Published Dec 6, 6:15AM EST

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Will People Get Their Gifts in Time for Christmas? — © Thinkstock

Many Americans celebrate Christmas, which falls on a Monday this year. Because United Parcel Service Inc. (NYSE: UPS) is falling behind in delivery time, people may be anxious about gifts they order very late. December 23 is among the heaviest shopping days as people who are tardy shopping for friends, family and co-workers jam e-commerce sites.

There are a number of reasons people cannot buy the gifts they want to give for Christmas. Among them are that some items have been sold out. While disappointing, it gives shoppers the chance, in many cases, to give alternative gifts. Later delivery falls outside that solution.

Late delivery is not always the fault of shipping companies. Some e-commerce sites promise to have gifts at the last minute, presumably because they are on back order, and the retailers believe they will get them in the nick of time. That is a risky business that relies on both guesses and the supply chain. That supply chain can be undermined by shipping companies, so late delivery becomes a vicious circle.

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UPS has warned both retailers and, via news reports, the shopping public that it may not have enough trucks and delivery people to make all delivery dates. Shoppers who procrastinate will have to take their chances. Some people cannot bring themselves to make decisions any earlier.

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About the Author Douglas A. McIntyre →

Douglas A. McIntyre is the co-founder, chief executive officer and editor in chief of 24/7 Wall St. and 24/7 Tempo. He has held these jobs since 2006.

McIntyre has written thousands of articles for 24/7 Wall St. He is an expert on corporate finance, the automotive industry, media companies and international finance. He has edited articles on national demographics, sports, personal income and travel.

His work has been quoted or mentioned in The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, NBC News, Time, The New Yorker, HuffPost USA Today, Business Insider, Yahoo, AOL, MarketWatch, The Atlantic, Bloomberg, New York Post, Chicago Tribune, Forbes, The Guardian and many other major publications. McIntyre has been a guest on CNBC, the BBC and television and radio stations across the country.

A magna cum laude graduate of Harvard College, McIntyre also was president of The Harvard Advocate. Founded in 1866, the Advocate is the oldest college publication in the United States.

TheStreet.com, Comps.com and Edgar Online are some of the public companies for which McIntyre served on the board of directors. He was a Vicinity Corporation board member when the company was sold to Microsoft in 2002. He served on the audit committees of some of these companies.

McIntyre has been the CEO of FutureSource, a provider of trading terminals and news to commodities and futures traders. He was president of Switchboard, the online phone directory company. He served as chairman and CEO of On2 Technologies, the video compression company that provided video compression software for Adobe’s Flash. Google bought On2 in 2009.