They said that their wives had been shopping since before dawn, but had they come to the mall to help?

Most of the works that failed to sell at Sotheby's carried too high an estimate or had been shopped around privately before the sale.

"We were shopping here before that, but this just solidified it."

"We believe the biggest sales peak of the year so far will be on Thursday at 5.34pm as people shop the day before the wedding."

"I left 'em here to shop for a bit, before goin' to the doctor," Frank said on a sob.

"I shop a little before work and read recipes after work and have nightmares every night," he said.

There were efforts to shop Camby before the trading deadline last week.

Dealers had predicted the disaster, however, saying the sculpture had been shopped around a lot before the sale.

He'd been up to thievery, no doubt, for there was no place to shop in these slow hours before dawn.

Then stores saw a surge of shopping the week before Christmas as consumers took advantage of better discounts.