High street booming

Kez100

Well today we found the eatery packed full (so that's good) and Lidl, Iceland and B and Q were busy. In BQ it seemed to be insulation and home decorating (paint etc) that was selling. Very few walking out with christmas tat, but a few were buying real trees. On the way out we looked at the M and S food to go store and the car park was packed! No reasonto park there otherwise so looking good for out of town shops.

I can't say if sales are down or up but there were people still buying.

We spent £110.

mitchaa

SingleSue wrote: »

Some of us have to be scrooge at Christmas as we just don't have the money to spend to be anything else without then not being able to afford to put food on the table, heat in our homes or have running water.

£750 would feed my family for nearly 4 months, maybe more and comments like yours do not make me feel any better about myself or my situation and in fact, makes me feel even more a downright failure.

My post was not meant like that. This thread was going along the lines of everyone is in for a ''miserable'' xmas due to the current economic situation, just like every thread on here is recently.

Lot of rubbish, otherwise every highstreet store would be going bust and there would be no shops left. There are still plenty of Markies/Debenhams/HMV's etc etc

Sue, my post was not meant to be disrespectful to you or anyone else on here. Beechers post did state that he knew he was being a scrooge with his £100 budget when there was no need for him to be hence my bah humbug comment. If you dont have the cash to splash at xmas, that is not a failure, far from it, everyone lives to their means, some way over as im sure there will be a fair few who put xmas on their CC's.

amcluesent

Reckon peeps will have been saving all year for Xmas, so they're going to enjoy it come what may. The band playing on as the ship is sinking maybe?

I predict Jan 23rd 2009 will be a day to remember when all the CC bills land on the doormat and people wake up to the reality of the Great Depression of 2009. Debt, Debt, Debt and more debt. And for another 1,000,000 unfortunates, no job.

beecher

mitchaa wrote: »

Sue, my post was not meant to be disrespectful to you or anyone else on here. Beechers post did state that he knew he was being a scrooge with his £100 budget when there was no need for him to be hence my bah humbug comment. If you dont have the cash to splash at xmas, that is not a failure, far from it, everyone lives to their means, some way over as im sure there will be a fair few who put xmas on their CC's.

Firstly I'm a woman

I don't see the problem with only spending £100 on Christmas. Everyone in my family is the same - we're celebrating Christmas by being together, rather than spending lots of money on the same old stuff. If you want to spend lots of money, that is of course up to you, but I don't feel the same sort of pressure to spend as I used to. Knowing my pay will be cut substantially has changed my attitude to spending and I realise that buying stuff isn't what is important. My pay is low as it is, and my bills are substantial - you do have a bit of a habit of assuming others have the same sort of pay coming in as yourself, and the same attitude to money. Each to their own and all that.

baby_boomer

We could spend more, but we're agreeing with family and friends to keep presents to a £10 maximum this year.

So we'll be out there making it seem busy and active. But the High Street won't benefit that much.

Jeff Randall

"....This week, we lost Woolworths and MFI, the kitchen company. These were weak operators with outdated business models whose demise forms part of a healthy high street evolution. Elsewhere, however, there is growing evidence that consumers are — not before time — waking up to the fact that if they want celebrity lifestyles, it’s advisable to have an income to match.

Many are throwing in the towel, cancelling all but essential expenditure. Yesterday, DSG (formerly Dixons) issued downbeat results and a gloomy forecast. Kingfisher (owner of B&Q) said that trading was becoming tougher.

There will, of course, be a last-minute rush to the shops for seasonal treats; there always is, even in the darkest of times. But this year’s will be restrained..."

hethmar

We have never been worried about the trappings of Christmas. Had far too hard a childhood and early years of marriage to be concerned about having the biggest table full of food to stuff and lots of useless pressies.

A happy and healthy family is all that is needed for a good christmas.

mitchaa

beecher wrote: »

Firstly I'm a woman

I don't see the problem with only spending £100 on Christmas. Everyone in my family is the same - we're celebrating Christmas by being together, rather than spending lots of money on the same old stuff. If you want to spend lots of money, that is of course up to you, but I don't feel the same sort of pressure to spend as I used to. Knowing my pay will be cut substantially has changed my attitude to spending and I realise that buying stuff isn't what is important. My pay is low as it is, and my bills are substantial - you do have a bit of a habit of assuming others have the same sort of pay coming in as yourself, and the same attitude to money. Each to their own and all that.

I watch my pennies just like everyone else but with children, im sure you'll know christmas is not cheap.

There was a bit of tongue in cheek in my post, the scrooge comment was meant in jest as you said yourself that you were into miser mode;)

I'll tread more carefully in future, its just this doom and gloom from the usual suspects is wearing a little thin now and to be honest getting pretty annoying as there are not masses of homeless, and we are not yet into the mass looting stage, so things are not that bad;)

Kez100

Same here. The only thing we have tended to over indulge on is food, buying far too much of it to be honest. I'll try and be more careful this year.

I splashed out on one present last year as part of our family were all going away together and so I gave them $$$$$$ to have a family meal. That really added up as I had to include folks I would normally not buy for or spend little on by default. On the basis the only one that said thank you was the one that opened the envelope and no one ever told us where they ate or mentioned it again, I won't be doing that again!

I have got down about it reading such doom and gloom but I am, finally I think, starting instead to treat it as a wake up call not to waste money and to try and prepare so we are in the best shape possible if something dire happens.

Austin_Allegro

Crowded shopping streets don't mean anything. Shopping is one of the few leisure activities the British know anymore, so obviously they will window shop even if they have no money. Only the retail sales figures have any meaning, and as far as I know they are quite heavily down.

That said, I think there's a feeling among some that the 'crisis is over' since the government bail-out of the banks; they've swallowed the government line that 'Gordon is in control'; some have never even noticed there is a 'crisis' at all ('Strictly' is so much more interesting than the news, after all...).

As long as the keypads in the shops are still saying 'card accepted', people will spend, recession or not. We are not going to go from manic consumer boom to tumbleweed strewn ghost towns overnight - if it does happen, it will be a very gradual process over years, not months.

amcluesent

Anyone else making 'crackers' from used toilet-rolls and instructing everyone at the dining table to shout 'crack'?

Of course, the parents aren't getting any younger and it would be a shame if their 'last Christmas' was one of austerity and scrimping like they knew in the dark days after 1945. It's not easy explaining to the tiny children that Mr Gordon has stolen all our money and that Santa won't be visiting them this year. How sad they are we can't afford Christmas thanks to NuLabour.