Some anxiety exists over inflation and supply chain issues but store owners are still optimistic; Chamber CEO urges shoppers to 'love local'
After surviving two years of COVID restrictions on indoor shopping, Sault Ste. Marie business owners are facing this year’s Christmas season with a different set of concerns.
“Absolutely everything has gone up and the shipping costs are very expensive,” said Tracey Theriault, Duke Of Windsor Sport Shop co-owner. “Canadians are looking forward to the holiday season but will be trimming their spending ahead of time to make the most of it,” according to a 2022 holiday shopping report from Accenture, an information technology services and consulting firm.
Despite looking for ways to save money or ways to earn more money before the holidays, the majority of Canadians who took part in the Accenture survey - 59 per cent - say they expect to spend the same amount of money on Christmas shopping as they did in 2021 and 16 per cent expect to spend more. “A lot more people are going away on vacation right now because they haven’t been able to go away for two years, so the sun tanning has been getting busier.”
“We try to stock inventory at all price points to accommodate any budget so we try to be ahead of that potential issue with decreased consumer spending.” Drewitt said he has not observed inflation to be as much of a factor at his shop as compared to other businesses and noted there haven’t been many supply chain issues.
“There certainly is an underlying sense of apprehension because the border is open so you’ve got cross border shopping considerations and there is concern the consumer has around the deterioration of their discretionary spending. The consumer is seeing the cost of everything going up, like groceries, dining out, the cost of hydro and heat, the cost of borrowing, their mortgages, their lines of credit, so you're seeing some anxiety.
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