You only have to Google “christmas jobs”, and take the most cursory glance at the results, to see that many of the big, familiar high street names are currently hiring staff to help them cope with the anticipated Christmas chaos.
For example, Debenhams have announced that they’re seeking to hire around 9,000 temporary staff over the Christmas and New Year’s sales period, which works out as nearly 60 staff for each of their UK stores! Clearly these aren’t the actions of a company which is expecting a quiet period.

This may just be optimism born out of the current economic forecasts, which predict that the economy is recovering and is set to improve over the course of 2011. However the retailers don’t seem to be taking our custom for granted this year, and it’s likely that there’ll be fierce competition within the sector, over the next few months, as each of the big players tries to ensure that it gets as big a slice as possible of the UK consumers’ Christmas spend.
Looking, again, at Debenhams it’s already possible to see the first volleys of this battle being fired; I must admit to not being the biggest frequenter of department stores, but I’m sure that the half price sales usually occur after Xmas, rather than in the build up to it, and, with more and more consumers researching products online before ever setting foot in a store, I’m sure that yesterday’s launch of their website’s new fashion TV channel was also carefully timed to help the store’s Christmas campaign.

Of course, in some ways the stores may actually be helping themselves, and the wider economy, with their positive attitude. In the direct sense, all of those people employed as seasonal workers will have more money in their pockets, to spend, than they would otherwise have had.
However, there’s also the confidence factor to consider, economic predictions are very often self fulfilling prophecies. When economic prospects look good people are more likely to spend, borrow, or invest, while they’re naturally more inclined to cut back on spending, and save more, during more austere looking times.

Obviously only time will tell, but if the retailers have the kind of busy Christmas which they appear to be planning for it will be a sign, and perhaps a more trustworthy one than any Govt forecast, that the economy really is on the road to recovery.

Still, the sales’ attraction to me is purely pragmatic; they’ve got stuff I want, it’s cheap, I’ll go buy it and then get the hell out of the shops as soon as possible! So it confuses me how the marketing people have yet again managed to hype and glamourize, what should be a series of simple financial transactions into some kind of major must-do holiday event in it’s own right. Are they really that good at their jobs, or are people, in general, just really easy to manipulate? I guess the answer’s a bit of both, but that the latter is especially true if the words “bargain” or “sale” are involved; everyone likes to think they’re getting a good deal, and apparently that extends to buying pretty much anything, even things which we didn’t necessarily want or need!

Wizard needs furniture, badly!... C'mon, really?!?!?