Christmas is just a few days away and the gift rush is underway in shopping centers across the country. – I’m used to just looking at the gifts first, what they have on offer. Randrianampantsoa is looking for a personal Christmas gift. Photo: Kristine Ramberg Aasen / news Dina Anjara H. Randrianampantsoa walks around the store and looks. – I look at the prices. I always have it in the back of my mind, he says. He himself believes that gifts are not the most important thing at Christmas. Photo: Kristine Ramberg Aasen / news Less or cheaper 43 percent answer this year that they buy fewer and/or cheaper gifts for Christmas as a result of poorer personal finances. This is shown by a survey carried out by Norstat on behalf of news. The biggest impact is in those under 50. Take a look at the graph and you can check your age group! Planning the Christmas presents – Everything goes up. Interest rates go up, rent and electricity. Gro Fossen is retired and is well aware that everything has become more expensive. To ensure good buys, she has been early with the Christmas presents. – I think about it all year. If it’s on sale, I’ll buy it. The waterfall was finished with all the Christmas presents in good time. Photo: Kristine Ramberg Aasen / news – Less demand Resham Farooq works in a shop in Oslo and says that they have noticed that there is less pressure this year, compared to last year. – We notice a big difference. She says that many people ask about sale items, say that they have a certain amount to buy for and some drop Christmas presents. Farooq notices that more people are more concerned with private finances. Photo: Yann Valerievich Belov / news Ella Hugaas, who works at the same centre, has also noticed a difference. – People buy smaller things at a lower value instead of the big gifts, she says. What about you, are you going to buy less this year? – It is my first year as a student, so the budget is not too big, there will be gifts for those closest to me in the family. Hugaas works in a shop in December and has not even had time to buy the Christmas presents. Photo: Kristine Ramberg Aasen / news Because the annual income is also decisive for how people answer the survey from Norstat and news. The final result will come in January We won’t find out how the Christmas shopping turned out until January. Because even though 43 percent answered that they are buying less or dropping Christmas presents this year, there can be a difference between what you say and what you do. Figures from week 49 show that retail trade (including food shops) in 219 shopping centers decreased by 0.8 per cent compared to the same time last year. The majority was due to reduced turnover in the clothing, shoe and bag stores, with a decrease of 8.4 per cent. It shows figures from Analysis and Action. According to a recent survey, sales of clothing are falling. Photo: Thomas Brun / NTB Figures from BankAxept, which make up 8 out of 10 card transactions in physical trade in Norway, looked at merchandise trade in November and even 19 December. Their figures show that clothes, shoes and accessories have decreased by 4 per cent. Sports and leisure with 8 per cent. Trade in perfumery, on the other hand, has increased by 32 per cent. Large footprint Thorgeir Kolshus works at the Institute of Social Anthropology at the University of Oslo. The head of the department believes that there can be something fundamentally healthy about smaller Christmas presents. – Because we already have such an enormous ecological footprint by virtue of living where we live, and having many things, and perhaps also being part of the spiral that drives up consumption. Thorgeir Kolshus hopes that the Christmas presents consist of more reuse in the years to come. Photo: Yann Belov / news He believes something is changing and refers to the narrative many have grown up with, that the future will always be a little more promising and better, also materially, than the past has been. – That narrative has perhaps now received such a serious shot in the bow, that we simply have to put a greater emphasis on nutrition, and realize that our consumption pattern is not sustainable, neither economically nor ecologically in the long run.
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Dropping or buying cheaper Christmas presents – news Norway – Overview of news from different parts of the country
