Went Christmas shopping on Saturday, including a visit to a Toys R Us. I can totally believe that Christmas spending will be down this year, just based on the state of the economy, but the stores are still busy and traffic is still heavy around here. Maybe people are buying less? Also, many of the people I saw at Toys R Us appeared to be grandparents, with glazed expressions and a list of what the grandkids want clutched in hand. Grandparents will always want to give something to the grandchildren. It just might be something smaller this year. Not that I am happy about this state of affairs, just trying to explain what I am seeing versus predictions. And lots of people out there are hurting economically, just based on the employment numbers and the demand for food stamps, etc.
I was also surprised and a little irritated by the emptiness of some of the store shelves. I've heard that stores are cutting back on how much they have in stock at a time, due to, you guessed it, the slowdown of the economy. I would think for Christmas they would ramp it up just a bit.
2 comments:
I was shocked at the lack of non-electronic toys. It's been declining for years, but this is the worst year yet.
I went shopping with lists in hand and couldn't find over 1/2 of the items. These weren't unusual toys, just the normal toys that I thought most kids owned. Such a shame.
Stores have been keeping less in stock the last few years already. Rare is it anymore that a shelf is stocked full back to front. Often it's just a few things in the front with empty space or empty rack behind.
I do more and more of my non-food shopping online each year.
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