I just watched an interesting segment on the news. Stores in the UK are stocking less over this Christmas period so they have less to shift. This comes despite expectations of higher sales this year. The stores are also going to be putting less into their January sales than previous years.

The reason given was consumers are giving less “presents”, preferring instead to give cash. It is, after all, more flexible for the recipient. So really it would seem retailers are looking at lower sales pre-Christmas, but to make it up in the sales with less discounts than in previous years. Why would this be?

Speaking from experience, it’s probably because people realize everyone has increased amounts of debt. By giving others cash, we let them choose how to use it – whether it’s to buy their own gift, or use the money to pay back credit card bills or the like.

I’ll certainly be using any money I get to pay back my credit card; this year I wouldn’t have been able to afford much of anything for others without my Visa. So unfortunately no Wii for me, but it’s not the end of the world. I’d rather be debt-free sooner, no matter how sweet Twilight Princess may look…

It would be easy for me to end with a rant about the crass commercialism of Christmas, and how we should go back to simpler times when we were happy to get an orange in our Christmas stocking, but cliché’s can kill so I’m not going to.