XMAS SHOPPING STARTING TO GET UNDER WAY

Bay of Plenty Beacon, Volume 14, Issue 73, 7 December 1949, Page 5

XMAS SHOPPING STARTING TO GET UNDER WAY

Though one can hardly describe it as a rush just yet, there is a definite quickening of the business tempo of certain trades as Christmas approaches.

With just on three weeks to go to the festive season, there are inquiries for such things as hams and bicycles to be laid aside for collection later. In fact, there is quite a substantial “lay-by” business being done by many concerns. By now, the younger members of most families have been induced to disclose the secret longings of their little hearts, and the soften-ing-down process whereby harrassed parents try to persuade junior that a toy locomotive would be much easier for Santa Claus to get down the chimney than a real one has begun.

Naturally, if Dad has managed to beat the young hopeful down from a _ passenger-carrying aeroplane to a bicycle, he feels the demand modest by comparison. But one doesn’t shout one’s son a bicycle out of one week’s wages. So the saving process has begun, and in many cases shopkeepers have already been let into the secret and asked “just to put. it away.”

With the food stores, the story is a bit different. A steady demand is building for those extra luxuries one likes to have on the festive board, and there is a definite tendency to “get in early and avoid the rush.” Most shops have started featuring Christmas window decorations..

Whakatane shops look to be wellstocked this year, though there are Still not unlimited supplies of all those little luxuries that made such a difference to pre-war Christmases. Even so, indications are that this one will be the best since 1938, though-prices are high.