On Saturday we decided to take a trip up to the Apple Store and spend some of the birthday cash that I had received a few days earlier. We live in the West End of the city and decided that a walk up Robson street to the Apple store and get us into the Christmas spirit by immersing ourselves in the sessional throng of holiday shoppers. Well the downtown crowds did not disappoint and it was pretty intense and actually quite difficult to make our way through the busy sidewalks. I thought to myself that maybe Canada is going to be immune from the US recession after all. At least that’s what it looked like at first glance. Then I noticed something strange in the sea of Christmas shoppers. There were little to no shopping bags being toted about. I thought maybe it was just a fluke and this would surely change as we made our way into the centre of the shopping district. My count put it at 1 in 10 with a bag and not a big bag at that. Five, ten, then fifteen minutes went by and nothing changed with my count. This was a stunning observation for this time of year.
So what is going on here? Are people waiting for bargains? Are they just out and about window shopping? Or are they shopping online? It’s not like there are no bargains to be had. The B2 shoe store had price cuts upwards of 60% off just about all of the stock.
If this trend continues my feeling is the retailers are going to be decimated this season.
What are you doing this Christmas? Are you cutting back? Buying online? Waiting until there are better bargains?