Weather and recession deter Christmas shoppers

By Andrew Adamides

WITH exactly a month left to go before Christmas, all’s not well with Cyprus’ shopkeepers.

While in yesteryear the festive season would be in full swing by now, as affluent Cypriots went on buying sprees in the runup to the big day, Christmas 1998 looks to be a lot leaner, in spite of the tinsel music blaring from the shops.

Melios Georgiou of shopkeepers’ union POVEK said yesterday that shopkeepers were praying for an upturn next month, as so far business had been bad.

“It’s much worse than last year and we hope it will get better,” he said.

Usually, Christmas shoppers started their seasonal rampage around November 10, he went on, but in 1998 the decorations may all be out on the streets, but the shoppers just aren’t.

Georgiou blamed the downturn on “the weather and the recession”, saying people just didn’t have the money they used to, and wouldn’t turn out in the unseasonably hot weather, both because it doesn’t feel like Christmas and because clothes in the shops are all winter garments.

Shopkeepers are now pinning their hopes on Cypriots’ reputation as last- minute shoppers and the start of December next week, which they hope will kick-start the buying.

The Cyprus Mail is the only English-language daily newspaper published in Cyprus. It was established in 1945 and today, with its popular and widely-read website, the Cyprus Mail is among the most trusted news sites in Cyprus. The newspaper is not affiliated with any political parties and has always striven to maintain its independence. Over the past 70-plus years, the Cyprus Mail, with a small dedicated team, has covered momentous events in Cyprus’ modern history, chronicling the last gasps of British colonial rule, Cyprus’ truncated independence, the coup and Turkish invasion, and the decades of negotiations to stitch the divided island back together, plus a myriad of scandals, murders, and human interests stories that capture the island and its -people. Observers describe it as politically conservative.