Xmas and the Credit Crunch: Double Trouble
I went Xmas shopping this weekend, and contrary to all my expectations, I actually bought 90 percent of my presents for relatives and everyone else. I’m not a fan of shopping; in fact I despise it with a passion.
At Xmas time everyone seems to go a bit ga ga over gifts for people they’ve probably not seen since last Xmas. You watch as people franticly claw at merchandise in a shop, barge their way past old grannies, as the parents of toddlers wait frustratedly at the long queue at Santa’s Grotto, because you still have 50 presents to buy for all your aunties and cousins you barely know. Nightmare.
Another particular favourite thing of mine to see is the groups of blokes huddled outside various changing rooms like a group of freezing penguins. Shoulders are arched in sheer discomfort, either from the weight of the bags, the fact they could be spotted by a mate or that they are standing awkwardly in a lingerie section. That’s a point…why do they always have those sections at the changing room doors? It’s like Father Ted all over again – if you enjoy UK comedy, you’ll understand.
Anyway, I got pretty much all of my gifts sorted out, and being a naturally cheap skate by nature, I sorted everyone out for under a tenner, sweet. What go me worried though was that people in the shops were spending their money like there was no tomorrow. The first time I saw people at a till in front of me the totals were in the hundreds of pounds, but my natural reaction was to assume they were WAGS or rich through ‘daddys money’, but this happened in numerous shops, with people of, er… different social status?
I was scraping the barrel for money as my bills are high, my rent is high, my fuel and food costs are high, yet people all around me were practically throwing money at the sales assistants. I thought we were in a recession? I thought the UK was the worst hit since 1991. If that’s the case, then why is everyone spending so much? And more to the point, where is the money coming from?
If I went to a bank and asked for a credit card, would they give me one? I thought banks were supposed to be stopping people from spending money they don’t have, or have people just hid money under the mattress? Its people spending this money they don’t actually own that has brought our country’s financial institutions to its knees.
So what’s the answer? Well I don’t know, I’m not a banker, but I don’t think they know either. Everyone moans about the credit crunch, but be honest, have you REALLY noticed that much of a difference, or are we bowing to a BBC buzzword. My bills have always been high and I don’t think I’m any better off or worse off since the start of the “crunch”, are you?
