INDIANAPOLIS (WISH) — Although Christmas Day is almost 90 days away, it’s not too early to get a leg up on holiday shopping.

“Apple launched a new suite of phones, and they always launch it in the 4th fiscal quarter because they want those to be gift items at the holiday time period,” said John Talbott, director of education at the Center for Education and Research in Retail for the IU Kelley School of Business.

Talbott says if there is something customers see online or in the stores, buy it now, because the price likely won’t decrease. Customers can even find deals at non-traditional holiday shopping venues like Lowes or Home Depot.

“The spread of these sort of holiday-based items I think has grown, and I think stores are using it as a mechanism to bump average cart size up,” said Talbott.

Talbott expects the 2023 holiday shopping season to be the first one not interrupted by Covid-related supply chain issues since before the pandemic.

“It’s been a lot of up and down over the last 5 years, and I think the retail community would like to return to a greater state of normalcy, whatever that means,” Talbott said.

Annie Merritt has a long shopping list this holiday season. She isn’t waiting until the weather turns cold to start her shopping.

“My brother is sitting right over there, and I already have his Christmas gift ready to go. I can’t tell you what it is though,” said Merritt.

Talbott says if customers see something that they like a smaller store, buy it now, because small businesses have less of an inventory than big-box stores.