Have people finally had enough of shops and greedy prices

[budlights]

I can't speak for other areas, but while I was out shopping this morning, I was surprised at how much was still available on the shelves. Morrisons had plenty of gift sets, candles, home accessories, Christmas chocolates, toys, etc. It was the same in Sainsbury's, B&M and Tesco. There were also a lot of items on sale, so they're obviously eager to shift it all. I typically do my shopping at the last minute because of work, and usually, most items are sold out, but this year seems different. Have people reached their limit?

Oh, and pyjamas!

I live in lovely affluent town in SE

The town centre is a hub of activity. Cafes and coffee shops heaving, all the shops full and long queues.

I loved to see it!

My Dbrother works for a luxury brand and he told me they brought in €25million over the weekend.

So no. I don’t think that’s an accurate appraisal. It’s more likely they increased the stock based on last year's figures and forecasting.

The shops, cafes and restaurants are busy here too, but there appears to be plenty of items still available on the shelves. Sainsbury's was especially busy this morning, but they had a ton of products on sale, and it seems like no one is interested this year!

I think the well off are fine this year. But I went to Bootgs today and it was busy but not much going through the tills.

inthink people are being careful this year. Not many extra being spent on unnecessary extras.

i have definitely been a bit more
savvy this year.

That’s because the technology surrounding stock is now top notch so will be much more adaptive to demand or lack of demand

I would imagine general cost of living issues are impacting what people choose to spend money on at this stage.
The news today that economic growth slowed to 0.1% in the quarter June to September is indicative that things are not good.

I reckon those are things that aren’t selling. People have less money so choose gists more carefully.

I wouldn’t give or want to receive any of the items you mention.

Often last-minute stock reductions are a built in aspect of the retailer’s strategy: plenty of people will still be doing last minute shopping, and a bit of panic plus the impression of a brilliant deal will get the stock moving - particularly on things like gift sets which are often Mr Last Minute’s “that’ll do” gift of choice. They win either way: anything sold weeks ago at the artificially high price plus anything else sold now at what they calculated to still make profit. I’ve been more surprised at the things that haven’t been reduced - I usually shop for things like fragrances and wrapping paper last minute when there tend to be deals, but much less of that when I was shopping on Saturday.

I had this conversation with someone this week about how empty all the shops were. I have not had to queue once.
Also have 2 big supermarkets near me. One has a major problem every year with their car park and usually it’s full causing problems on near by roads this year the car park is half empty every time I go pass. The other supermarket had people just sitting at the tills when I popped in, no one with big food shops.

Definitely a lot of people have cut back this year some by choice many because they literally don’t have the money spare to go and buy.

This always seems to happen; at least in the last few years. Things get bought by those who think they're getting a bargain; but also the last minute gift shoppers.

Probably the ever increasing march of online shopping will impact on any reduction in footfall and physical shop sales?

I wanted to buy a pack of Christmas cards on Friday but there were none in either Tesco or M & S (ours is a food hall but they sell all the Christmas add-ons). I did get some in Sainsbury’s but the choice was limited. It wasn’t even beyond the last posting date!

Tesco also had no wrapping paper, and the few remaining sets of lights were half price. I know lots of people start decorating early but I thought that was odd

Yes. I live in a city famous for its large shopping centre and this year I didn't even bother taking my DC. It does look nice but all the activities are gone, it is solely designed to grab as much money as it can from you. Very nice looking little stalls that are all insanely overpriced. It feels cynical and I simply can't afford it. They used to have a little indoor park set up at that time of year, free craft activities, public entertainment, a little train that went around the centre, now it's a nice looking stall that sells giant lollipops for loads of money. It's just not affordable and not much of an experience.

I went to Tesco earlier today. It was ok parking, the aisles were bus, fully stocked. Managed to scan and pay easy enough.
I’ve done a majority of my shopping online as I’ve been working long days and then crashing out in my days off.

Oh I think I kind of missed the point of the post but yeah, corporate greed is dulling the shine a bit.

This would make sense though; the rich are still rich and can ride out the wave.

But the middle and lower income earners are now tighter than ever and on the cusp of struggling to afford basics. So perhaps some sectors of industry are experiencing lower sales compared with others.

What I noticed were loads of very short sell by dates - salmon pieces expiry date tomorrow was one, but there were several examples. Hate it, but then I reckon there should be plenty in the reduced section tomorrow and Wednesday.

We are spending but, admittedly started a few years ago, refuse to buy for the sake of it. I would rather buy 1 'luxury' quality item than 5 pieces of 'crap' and let's be honest that is most of what those gift sets are. Sort of nice to un-wrap but very generic and usually okay-ish quality. I am choosing to buy quality to last, rather than adding unnecessary to landfill

A lot more people are online shopping.

I did notice when we went to Bath Christmas market this year, it was as busy as ever, however traders didn’t seem to be selling as much as usual. Only the buy food and drink to eat as you go round stands seemed to be doing well.

My local Superdrug had bare shelves on Saturday, I thought it was a sign they were going under.

This.

There are many people that are very well off or well off in society.

There are also people who are struggling a bit and others who are struggling a lot.

Depends where you shop and live.

I've just been in a big queue in Sainsbury's for a few bits! It was office lunchtime though.

Retailers build in a certain amount of stock to go half price after Christmas to get people in the door, so a lot of what's left wasn't meant to be selling until this weekend.

It isn't my experience. In Tesco yesterday the place was heaving and they had checkout marshals. In M&S there were lots of items not in stock, but the space was being filled with other items. There were notably fewer christmas chocolates, for example.

I passed through town today before the shops opened and there were queues outside most of them.