This holiday season, some retailers are hoping Central Oregonians will make a list, check it twice and head to their local grocery store.

In a retail trend that’s been gaining momentum in recent years, more grocery stores are offering nonfood items geared toward gift buyers. The trend is a way for grocery stores to better compete with one-stop shopping giants like Wal-Mart, industry experts say, and as a way to compete for the coveted holiday shopper.

”I don’t have the data, but I think it’s safe to say that consumers are spending more at grocery stores during the holidays,” said Scott Krugman, spokesman for the Washington, D.C.-based National Retail Federation, a retail trade group.

Retailers are hoping to secure a big bite of the roughly 137 million consumers expected to shop this weekend, according to a National Retail Federation survey.

Most of those shoppers will head to the electronics or toy sections, the survey found, and many grocery stores are stocking these popular items alongside the cereal, dish soap and cotton swabs.

Bend resident Holly Polis can’t imagine doing her Christmas shopping at a grocery store.

”I’m more a shop-as-you-go person,” Polis said as she stood in line at the Century Drive Safeway in Bend. ”But not at Safeway.”

Behind Polis, gift cards to Starbucks, iTunes and other retailers hung on a display.

These easy holiday presents have grown in popularity over the past few years, according to the National Retail Federation. That’s why some grocery stores like Safeway have invested in them.

Safeway has more than 70 gift cards, said spokeswoman Bridget Flanagan.

”We cover the gamut,” she said.

Safeway offers gift cards to many retailers that don’t exist in Central Oregon, but Flanagan says that’s not the point.

”People are mailing them, people are giving them to friends who live away and they are good to travel with,” she said. ”They are wonderful gifts across state lines.”

The retailer offers gift cards from restaurants like the Olive Garden, Red Lobster and the Cheesecake Factory, clothing stores like Nordstrom, Gap and Macy’s, electronics stores like Radio Shack and Best Buy, and online shopping cards for nflshop.com.

Gift cards also are available for Blockbuster, Marriott hotels, United Airlines, AMC Theatres, Seattle Mariners baseball, Shell Oil, Pottery Barn and various phone services. This year, Safeway started offering McDonald’s gift cards.

”People come in specifically for gift cards,” Flanagan said.

A special booth with gift cards will be one of the features of a Holiday Cheer Party at all Safeway stores on Dec. 7, when employees will showcase special Safeway products that consumers don’t normally find at a grocery store.

The store also will showcase extensive holiday decorations, meals shoppers can order ahead and gift baskets that can be created with Safeway products and anything the consumer wants to add.

Safeway has offered gift cards for the past decade, Flanagan said. But they’ve boomed in popularity, which Flanagan attributes to the ease of giving gift cards as presents.

Albertsons jumped on the gift-card bandwagon this year with its Gift Card Mall, said spokeswoman Donna Eggers.

Eggers calls Albertsons a ”one-stop shopping destination,” where customers can shop for a variety of gifts, including TVs and other electronic devices, children’s toys and seasonal novelty merchandise.

At Bend’s Newport Avenue Market, owner Rudy Dory expects most people know his store stocks gifts and knickknacks.

His wife is in charge of almost all the gifts, he added.

In his business, Dory strives to be ”the first, best or different” from other grocery stores.

More grocery stores are innovating to compete against the likes of Wal-Mart and Fred Meyer.

”Everyone’s striving for a buck,” Dory says. ”The Wal-Mart effect has forced everybody to look inside themselves and say, ‘What can I do, what can I sell, to stay in business?’”