It’s almost three weeks since the city’s Christmas market opened for business on the Hayes and traders are beginning to count their takings and compare them to previous years’. A number of stall owners say they’re noticing customers are still spending in the market, but they are buying less.
Sarah, who produces handmade Welsh gifts, told CJS News that she had made half as much money compared to this time last year. “[It] was a boom year,” she said, “but this year obviously I think purse strings are a lot tighter because of what’s going on in the economic climate”. She says spending in 2021 rose dramatically after lockdown restrictions were lifted.
The owner of Beacons Candles says she has also noticed a difference. Customers are now just purchasing just one candle, whereas before ‘they might’ve bought more’. She’s worried people are being scared away from markets because of increasing costs and not wanting to be seen as extravagant.
Another stall owner said a predicted ‘World Cup boom’ hasn’t materialized yet and has had the opposite effect, with people spending their money in pubs and bars on St Mary’s Street rather than in the Christmas markets.
Other vendors are more hopeful. Dal, who sells knitwear produced in Napal, said that he thinks that people will have money saved for the Christmas period. He said, “it’s not that bad, people seem ok to spend the money”. Other jewellery retailers in the market are also hopeful that their top shelf products will continue to sell, because they are less of an ‘impulse buy’. The consumer survey Global Data has forecasted a £2 billion fall in Christmas spending compared to last year.