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“Is it that time already?” “Every year it gets earlier!” “Please! No tinsel! Not before December!” These are just some of the comments I overheard recently as passers-by saw me and my colleagues installing the holiday windows at the emporium of style and fashion where we work.

We are old hands at ignoring sidewalk commentary. We usually just carry on with our glue-gunning and our decoupage-ing. But this year the Greek chorus of surprise reached such a pitch that I feel compelled to respond and set the record straight. Brace yourselves. You may be shocked by what I am about to tell you.…  Seguir leyendo »

¿Es imaginable que una parte de la población viva las fechas navideñas sin pasar una sola vez por El Corte Inglés? Puede imaginarse pero no se concibe. La omnipresencia y hasta la omnisciencia de El Corte Inglés ha convertido a gran parte de este país en una tribu multiclase a la que pertenecen ya como afiliados con tarjeta unos diez millones de españoles. ¿Debe extrañar que la arquitectura de sus centros reproduzca la morfología de fortalezas esotéricas o naves espaciales que prometen el oro aquí o en el más allá excéntrico?

El Corte Inglés es popular pero es a la vez de condición populista que acoge tanto a la empleada o el funcionario como a la señora condesa.…  Seguir leyendo »

In the seething, elbowing, cursing, foot-aching maelstrom of the Merrie Christmas shopping experience, a piercing cry goes up from along the aisle. You look over and there is a harassed, desperate woman - occasionally a man - on the edge of losing it completely with a child who is having a tantrum. The tot, or schoolchild, is furiously demanding something on the shelf. It is too expensive, or it is too full of sugar or fat, and the parent is trying to say no. Childless shoppers often look disgusted at the lack of control. Anyone with kids will roll a sympathetic eye.…  Seguir leyendo »

The financial analyst Richard Ratner warned a month ago that the British high street was facing its worst Christmas for a quarter of a century. Some people are immune: John Lewis is up 6% on last year, and M&S, the lumbering velveteen dinosaur of consumerism, is doing surprisingly well. Most other retailers, however, are falling neatly into line with Ratner's prediction. Woolworths has been hit so hard by the slump that it has said that, unless something incredible happens in the next three weeks, this yule will yield profits of under half of last year's.

Internet shopping has been blamed, though one does have to ask, since many of these shops have websites, why would they be victims of this trend and not victors?…  Seguir leyendo »