Archive for December, 2004

Mel and I set off for our traditional post-Christmas shopping spree this morning. We usually hit Target and a couple of other places, looking for discounted toys for next year’s holiday charity donations. What we found surprised me.

All season long, we have been surprised at how light the shopping traffic has been. I’m sure there are a number of reasons for the low volume of shoppers and sales, including more online shopping and fewer discretionary dollars in middle and lower class pockets.

We drove into the Target parking lot and immediately found a parking place quite near the front. I remarked to Mel that there were not nearly as many cars there that I would expect for the day after Thanksgiving. We walked inside the store and found only two people at the returns counter. No long lines, no rope queues, no frazzled store personnel directing traffic. We went back to the toy section, which normally is the center of the Target universe at Christmas. Nobody was back there. Then again, there wasn’t much on sale, either.

We drifted over to the Christmas stuff, which was marked at 50% off. This is where most of the shoppers could be found. However, there wasn’t the usual frantic stuff-your-basket grab-and-run antics you usually find when Christmas things go on sale.

Finding nothing to buy that we just had to have, we left and headed toward Fry’s. Ah. Now here was a crowd. However, we easily found a parking spot near the front. And while it was crowded, it appeared to be nothing worse than a busy Saturday.

Next, we went to Smith & Hawken. I love Smith & Hawken. I love their post-Christmas sales, which lower their normally atmospheric prices into my earthbound price range. Again, we found a parking spot right up front. Again, not many shoppers in the store and not much more than the Christmas stuff on sale.

The final destination for the day was Borders, for a few half-price calendars. Same story.

Where are the shoppers? I’ll tell you where they are. At home, playing with the few presents they could afford to buy, what with exhorbitant gas prices (our gasoline bill has tripled in the last year) and the major increases in the prices of staples and groceries because of the higher costs of shipping.

Only those fortunate enough to be a. RICH or b. RICHER can afford to splurge this year on anything but essentials and stores cut prices so much before Christmas that there’s nothing left to discount.