THE STALLS have all the basics – toys, decorations, wrapping paper, woolly hats, Jedward T-shirts – everything you need this festive season.
But according to the traders on Dublin’s Henry Street business has plummeted this Christmas.
Sadie Grace has been on the Henry Street stalls since she was a child. She said she has never seen it this quiet on a Christmas week.
“Normally this time of year you wouldn’t be able to move on this street – I mean, you can see,” she says, gesturing towards empty spaces where throngs of shoppers would usually be inching their way through the crowds.
“It’s obvious people just don’t have the money. What’s never happened before is that Irish people are starting to haggle over prices, and that’s never happened before. It’s really unusual because it’s just not in our culture.”
“It’s slower than last year and every other year,” Ryan Staunton says. “Last year was really slow up until the week before Christmas. This year it’s slow and it’s still slow.”
“There’s no one in town,” Jake Stephens agrees, blaming North-bound shoppers for the lack of business.
Peter Ryan says that, while there are still people around, especially on the weekends, they’re simply not spending.
“People just have no money. You used to get €12 and €14 for some of them toys. Now you wouldn’t even get a fiver for them . . . now they’re asking you for batteries with a toy that’s only a fiver.”
Stallholder Alan Higgins says there just isn’t the same footfall as other years. “Look around you – there are very few bags. The only ones are Dunnes and Penneys bags.”
The toy shops were also relatively quiet. Just days before Christmas, Hamley’s in Dundrum is a shopper’s paradise as relaxed customers browsed in quiet aisles. One, Barry Kellet from Knocklyon, says he noticed there has not been the same shopping mania as in previous years.
“I think it’s a lot quieter. Not just in toy shops, in all shops. What you’ll notice is that the shop might be busy, but the queues aren’t at the tills the way they used to be,” he says. “I definitely think that we’re spending less. We’re not going as mad. I think everyone’s being more careful.”
Rosemary Enright says the trend of parents trying to outdo one another has been reversed this year as they try to nose out cheaper items.
“Last year and the year before, you’d go in and there’d be people with trolley loads in November, whereas this year it’s much calmer,” she says. “The kids keep asking though.”
In Smyths toy store in Dublin city centre, Stacey Doyle, from Ballybough, said she found the upside of the recent Budget was that the pressure on parents to buy big has reduced this year.
“There’s not as much pressure for people to get all the top brands and all. People just haven’t got it to spend.”
She says sacrifices will have to be made this Christmas. “The adults aren’t really buying for each other this year – we’re just making sure the kids are getting presents.”
Siobhán Barron from Templeogue says many people had waited until after the Budget before doing their shopping.
“I think a lot of people left it very late this year until they heard the Budget . . . People are cutting back on the amount that they’re spending. Certainly I have, and anyone that I’ve been talking to would have.”
In other years Avril Montgomery would have had Christmas organised as early as September, but this year she’s waited until this month to avail of an increasing number of pre-Christmas sales.
“I’m still waiting on a few things because prices are still coming down,” she says, adding that she had saved 70 per cent on one toy for her son already this year.
“I think I missed the Celtic Tiger really. We’ve always had to be careful – we’ve three kids, we’ve a mortgage . . . I’ve always had a budget for Christmas, and I’ve always saved for Christmas . . . Middle income families who are finding it hard to cope have always found it hard to cope.”