Bid to save cash starts Christmas shopping
Christmas shopping is starting earlier than ever, as people try to spread the cost of what looks set to be the most expensive festive season in memory.
the Christmas shop at Brown thomas has been open since august, arnotts opened its shop this week, and the manager of an outdoor furnniture store that specialises in artificial Christmas trees said they have had more enquiries than ever for this time of year – before their Christmas showroom has even opened.
John Crean, manager at Outdoor Living, said: ‘We’re opening up our showroom a month earlier this year.
‘We’ve just been shocked by the amount of traffic that we’re getting at the moment on our website.
‘i’d imagine people are just looking at prices going up weekly. transport costs and that kind of stuff are increasing – there’ll be a lot of increases on everything across the board.
‘so i’d say people are trying to spread that cost to get their Christmas tree now so they don’t have that trouble of not being able to afford one closer to the time.’
sales of artificial trees at British department store John Lewis have shot up by 400% compared with the same time last year.
Google data reveal searches for ‘artificial Christmas trees’ increased 122% in the week leading up to august 20.