Ghost Town

Maybe not August ghost town, but everyone seems to be gone right now for the holidays. The stores were hardly crowded and the shelves are fully stocked. I have hardly noticed significant shopping this season as consumers pull back which will lead to more panic in Q1 when the official numbers arrive. We do our (limited) holiday shopping throughout the year when we see a deal as I can't stand hectic stores and become grumpy in about 2 seconds. Unless it's at my Inno and something new just arrived or I've spotted a discount item with an orange sticker. We did some shopping at a brochantes a few weeks back and all we had to do was look at something (not even touch it) and they were discounting. It's that kind of climate this year.