What Christmas Shopping In Bridgend Might Tell Us About Brexit

Hello there. Hope you're feeling well today.

Everything I'm going to say now is completely anecdotal. Let me stress this. But if what I'm seeing is representative then it appears many people are getting into the Christmas spirit.

Other than of course an old grinch that is me.

I already mentioned that wife/daughter have started putting  out decorations. They include a snowman the wife took a fancy to from Dunhelm. It lights up. It's tacky rubbish. Indeed it's so bad if she dies before me I will make sure it's the first thing for the tip (and if I die before her at least  I'd be in no condition to care).

Christmas Comes But Once a Year - For Seeing This Again....Not Long Enough

Daughter (who is a teenager let me stress) got out on some Christmas music from YouTube. "All I Want For Christmas  Is You. Sung not by Mariah Carey but the sort of girl group I've never seen but feel I've known a thousand times before.

" Very good"  I told her.

 "Why? Because it's Christmas?"

 " No because I'm leaving for work"

(Trust me she understands her grinch of a dad)

But here's the thing. It was Sunday and as I was passing the big out of town stores in Bridgend I noticed that the traffic was busy. In fact so busy there were queues to get into these stores. And there were queues at the McDonald's and the KFC a s well.

People were shopping for Christmas. Furthermore they were shopping for Christmas in a way I
never seen them do in a long while. I was told later that this was also happening in Merthyr Tydfil as well

Now my first reaction was actually that I was pleased that the stores were doing this business. Given the trouble the retail sector is in. But then I wondered. Could it just be that people are spending this Christmas for fear that post Brexit they won't be able to spend as much? Could it just be the retail equivalent of the condemned man's hearty breakfast?

Well I don't know. but assuming Brexit happens I'm laying down a marker here in this post. We'll see how happy a Christmas will be next year.

For even I don't want people who love the season to feel that the best of their Christmases have gone by and that their kids will never be able to experience anything remotely the same

Until the next time.