Charities are alive and kicking!!!

With more people slowly heading back out to the high streets and defying the credit crunch in search of Christmas presents and goods, experts were wondering how long and in some situations even if charity shops could survive?

The answer; with 17 days to go until Christmas day, Charities are still going strong and some charities have even noticed an increase in sales and customers.

Charms Charity shop on Plungington Street, Preston, say’s it’s not seen the effect of the credit crunch in its shop but by contrast they’ve seen more business. “We’ve certainly had no problems and if anything, strangely we’ve seen more customers in here recently.”

The Catholic Caring Charity shop, also on Plungington Street, Preston, is another one of the charity shops that has not been affected by the credit crunch, as it claims to have “steady and sustained” sales and business at the minute.

Manager of the shop Linda Byrne has been impressed by how well the store continues to do and is not worried by the credit crunch at all. “I personally don’t feel the credit crunch has altered our business, really it’s just been steady and it continues to be so.”

“Maybe it’s just because it’s the run up to Christmas, but I don’t think any of it has got to do particularly with the credit crunch.” Either way, Linda is hoping for Christmas to finish on the same high note and the New Year to come in with a bang.

It’s a Christmas, Credit Crunch Backlash.

Despite the fact that the average Joe owes £33,000 in loans according to recent reports, shoppers have slowly started to head back out onto the high street and in particular online in search of a happy Christmas.

Recent reports have shown a small increase in high street retailer’s sales with more and more people slowly hitting the streets to do some Christmas shopping.

This increase comes less than a month on following, PricewaterhouseCoopers warning that shoppers would be “facing severe restrictions on their spending as lenders reject credit card applications and reduce debt limits.”

The statement which cited that an “increasing number of households were stretched to their borrowing capacity, which in turn would hit consumer spending”, also noted that “consumer spending held up well in the third quarter of the year.”

Whilst high street retailer’s are reporting small increases in numbers, online spending habits are still high and aren’t about to change according to the U.K’s leading comparison site.

A recent survey conducted by Kelkoo found that a “surprising 60% won’t be changing their spending habits this year, in spite of gloomy economic conditions.” So it looks like it’s still going to be a merry Christmas for some……..hopefully.